For the prompt "hammock" at edmund_caspian.
Distraction
With your shield or on it.
First among equals.
Edmund bent over his Latin, trying to ignore the tag-ends of old phrases to concentrate on the actual words before him.
Yet his mind persisted in veering away from what he must do if he wanted to achieve a place at university.
As his fingers moved, directed the pen, formed ink into words, his thoughts were elsewhere. He recalled the stillness of an island night; words whispered from a hammock, nearly lost in the sound of waves; the harsh sunlight of parting.
Caspian.
He blotted the word out, swallowed, and continued.