Does anyone else have that curse where they can only produce good work at 2 in the morning?

(Sage)

"Feet shoulder width apart. Elbows raised. Line the butt of the bow up with your dominant eye. That's the stance," Edmund crossed his arms in approval.

I dropped my arms out of the stance I would use when he decided I was capable of handling a real crossbow.

"I would tell you that you need to focus on your balance, but you seem to already have that down," he stated.

I beamed. "It's a natural dancer thing," I told him.

He picked up his own bow and loaded it. "Stance, aim, release. Like this." He demonstrated. His arrow sank into the dragon head at the front of the ship. "Now you try," he passed me the crossbow.

I strung the arrow and hefted the surprisingly heavy weapon up to eye level.

"Nice and steady," Edmund instructed patiently.

Who knew a crossbow had a kickback?

My arrow made a lovely arc right into the water. I offered Edmund a sheepish grin. "Hope you've got plenty of arrows because I don't think I'll be able to get this anytime soon."

"That's ok. Try again," he inclined his head.

That's how the rest of the training went. As I kept hitting the water over and over again, any comment would be met with, "Try again." I decided that Edmund wasn't exactly patient, more bored maybe. It made me wonder just how many soldiers he'd had to train in his lifetime. Maybe this was all routine and I was just another subject to him.

By the time I'd hit the dragon head twice and nearly impaled an unsuspecting crew member, Edmund and I decided to call it a day. Well today went better than yesterday at least.

Unlike yesterday, when we'd found Natalie and Caspian taking a break, we discovered them deep in combat. Natalie had her brow twisted in concentration and sweat shone all down her arms. Caspian, however appeared to be putting hardly any effort to fend off the much smaller girl. I noticed with a start a rag tied around her ankle with a thin line of red.

"What is that?" I demanded. If she'd been injured in training I might reconsider wanting her to learn. She was just a kid after all.

Natalie turned and peered at me through her wild dark bangs. "I dropped the sword. No big deal. Cassie says I'll have a bad ass scar though."

"I believe my word choice was 'cool,'" Caspian cut in. "You should be careful. Wouldn't want sailor speak to rub off on you too bad Nate."

Sage smiled faintly at the brotherly teasing.

She was wondering how Natalie was feeling since stonewalling her last night. Seeing as the blue eyed girl adamantly looked at everyone but Edmund I decided to go with: not well.

"You guys already grabbed dinner?" Sage asked. Caspian nodded and gagged as Natalie smeared sweat from her neck onto his jaw.

Caspian shoved her over to me. "Your turn to babysit," he said.

I rolled my eyes at the two. "Same time tomorrow hot stuff?" Natalie taunted. "Sure, sure," Caspian waved her off.

"You sure you're ok?" I heard Edmund ask Natalie. She gazed up at him blankly. "It's just a cut, Ed," she muttered brushing him off.

Of all the things Natalie prattled on about I knew Edmund wasn't on her list of topics today, so I just let her talk herself into unconsciousness.

Finding my own sleep was another matter entirely. Finally, I got up and adjusted my trusty yoga capris. I headed up to the Dawn Treader's upper deck where the night wind made me hug my long sleeve t-shirt to my body.

I spotted Eustace huddled against the edge of the ship writing in some book that he slammed shut upon seeing me. I suggested he go to bed because he seemed tired.

"I certainly can take care of myself," was his clipped response.

I shrugged and kept walking. Finally I made it to the top deck. I leaned against the railed and shut my eyes as the salty air blew my hair about my shoulders. The sound of waves was enough to convince me to sleep right here: cold or not.

"It's quite the experience, eh?"

My eyes snapped open and I spun around. Caspian and Edmund were sitting at the bottom of the mast and looked like they'd been there a while.

I immediately pulled my now wind tousled hair into a ponytail and hoped for the best. "It's all so exhilarating," I replied as coolly as I could manage. "And what are you two doing out here?"

"Having a little man-chat," Edmund responded. Then he stood and dusted off his bottom. "But I was just leaving, so goodnight."

Once he had left I took over the spot he'd just vacated. For a while, neither one of us spoke and that was surprisingly ok. We both just sat in the peace provided by the soothing ocean and each other's' presence.

Caspian broke it first. "Your mothering instincts are impressive."

"Oh, thanks," I laughed softly.

Now the silence was awkward as I searched for something to say.

"How is Natalie progressing with her sword fighting?" I asked finally.

"She thinks she's doing worse than she is. Her technique is there but her balance kind of destroys some of her potential."

"Well, if Edmund hasn't already told you, my weakness appears to be my aim. He says I focus too much and that ruins it."

Caspian looked at me and laughed. "You know, that was my problem when I first started out."

"Interesting."

After a few moments of silence Caspian asked, "Have you ever bothered to look up? I've seen you looking out at the ocean and, yes, it's lovely, but there are wonders in the sky as well."

My eyes followed to where his hand was gesturing. The night sky was glittering with stars as if it were alive.

"It's amazing," I breathed.

There were no cities to cast light on the sky, and so it was full of brilliant and colorful stars. The Narnian constellations baffled and intrigued me at the same time.

Even the moon was different than the one I knew. This one seemed larger and glowed with more of a bluish hue.

"I'm kind of a symbol of the moon," Caspian said, tucking a stray brown lock behind his ear. The wind flattened his white shirt against his chest.

"I don't follow," I angled myself to face him.

"At my coronation, Aslan gave me a similar title to the Pevensies. Take Ed, for exampled. He is King Edmund the Just of the Great Western Woods. Even Jessie got one from Aslan when she left Narnia on the arm of High King Peter. She was dubbed Jessie the Serene of the Graceful Autumn Clouds."

"And so what are you," I pushed, for he had peaked my interest.

"I believe his exact words were, 'To the Mystical Winter Moon, King Caspian the Magnanimous." I swear I saw a red tint to his cheeks.

"Didn't know a King could be embarrassed," I teased lightly before adding, "It was accurate of him to call you noble and kind."

Caspian hummed but offered no more in the way of conversation. He pulled his knees up and draped his long arms across his knees.

Caspian talked about everyone it seemed and avoided one specific Queen.

"Tell me about Susan," I said as the thought struck me.

He averted his eyes and wrung his hands together.

"Well, she's a brunette, approximately 18, officially Queen Susan the Gentle…" he trailed off when he saw the skeptical look I gave him.

"You know good and well that wasn't what I was asking," I didn't mean it to come out so sharp. But something was picking at my good nature: jealousy.

"I'm sure Lucy can tell you anything you wish to know," he avoided answering yet again.

"I asked her. She said the story was yours to tell."

When Caspian's response finally came, it was all rushed and in a single breath. "What can I say? Susan was a lovely and fierce woman, and I admired her. She and I fancied each other by the time they had to leave. We kissed and I have not seen her since."

His soft brown eyes finally met mine. The wind seemed to make the space between us vast and impenetrable. Looking at him now, I was reminded that he was a King and his world was fantastically different from my own.

He surprised me with his next questions.

"What about you? What's your story?" I knew he didn't mean life story. He meant one like the story he'd just shared with me.

I chewed my lip briefly before deciding on how to reply. "I haven't really had one yet. Sure I've dated a few guys over the years, but nothing long term has ever come of it. And I've certainly never been in love."

I don't know why I added the love bit. Caspian hadn't mentioned it in his own tale. Maybe it was the flighty knot in my stomach that pushed the words out.

I blew air harshly out of my lips and settled my back against the mast. "Wow, group share time."

"Yes, so it seems," he replied a bit dazed.

"I'd best be off to sleep," I said.

"Of course," he agreed.

Before I could get up, however, he took my hand and pressed his warm lips to the top of it. That knot in my stomach unfurled, releasing a string of butterflies up through my torso.

"Goodnight, my lady."

To shake myself back into gear, I stood and performed a grand curtsey.

"And to you, your Majesty."

I heard him chuckling to himself as I walked away.

Late the next morning, I woke to something burning. I figured the cook just made a mistake until I heard frantic guttural noises out on the deck. I quickly went out to see what was going on.

Natalie was running all over the deck with a burning pot in her hand. She paused in front of me long enough to yell, "This thing is on fire! What do I do?"

"Put it out with water," I instructed over the rest of her screams.

Natalie halted long enough to chunk the pot over the side of the ship. The splash was laced with a hiss as the two collided.

I stared at her for a good minute before dragging a hand over my face, "That's not what I meant."

The cook came over with ash streaks in his black mustache. I excused myself as Natalie apologized profusely to him.

Back in my bedroom, I noticed that my hair was greasy from several days without washing it. I seized a bucket and decided to see to that. Salt water probably wasn't the best for my hair but it was all I had to work with at the moment.

Lucy came in while I was still toweling off my thick hair. "Can I brush it?" she chirped.

She ended up braiding it too, but I didn't mind. I didn't have sisters to do my hair and my grandmother wasn't much help.

"Why was Natalie allowed to cook?" I asked.

"She said she could make some fancy dish called Spaghettio's," Lucy replied.

I groaned. "That literally required you to stick a can in a microwave. Let's never let her do that again."

"Oh," Lucy said sheepishly.

When she finally completed my long braid she stood and adjusted her shirt. "I'm actually avoiding work. I have to sew up clothes for the crew. You wouldn't believe how many holes grown men can put in their attire."

"I'll help if you don't mind teaching me how," I offered.

Her young face brightened. "Yes, that'd be wonderful!"

Sewing proved an excellent distraction. With Caspian busy running the ship today, I found myself longing just to talk to him. At one point, after I'd gotten the easy rhythm of the needle, I looked up and caught him staring at me from behind the wheel. He gave me a small nod which I returned before lowering my head to get back to work.

I should not be left blushing at such simple things.