I'm sorry I haven't been able to update lately. I've been sick with a 101.9 F fever. :( But I'm well now, and have finished all my homework!

Thanks for waiting. I'm sorry for keeping you!

Chapter Eleven

Mating Season

Things were returning back to normal after a few weeks. With all business going on, Edmund forgot about Niara. He would look out the sea and wonder why he did, find something in his mind to connect it with, give up, then carry on doing something else.

Peter knew Edmund had forgotten, and left it at that. Susan was glad to see Ed back to normal, and Lucy got her occasional hit from her playful older brother.

Weeks grew into months, and months would've grown into years hadn't this certain event happened…

Niara hated spring. Spring only meant one thing: when all the nymphs chose mates. She never really had to worry about it last year because she was not old enough to have a mate, but this year she had turned fifteen seasons and knew exactly who was going to come to ask her to be her mate.

The first morning of the mating season Niara had left at dawn before the sun had shown down on the glassy depths of the sea. She would go to her cave and sit there as long as she could. Pathetic, she knew, but there was nothing else she could do. She was scared too leave her home under the sea and dared not swim away.

"I'm such a coward," Niara muttered as she swam quietly to the cave. "Perhaps Jylese doesn't even want me to be his mate. Perhaps someone else will choose me."

But for some strange reason, Niara couldn't pick one male nymph in the sea she loved. She tried to ignore the feeling, but it tore at her constantly.

"Going to your cave?" said Jylese.

Niara whipped around with a small shriek. There was Jylese, who had emerged out of a curtain of kelp by some tall rocks.

"N-no…just for a swim…before…" Niara stammered.

"Don't play dumb. You go to that little cave all the time. And you think no one sees you," he smirked.

"Leave me alone, Jylese," Niara spat.

Jylese patted something on his side. Niara saw for the first time he was wearing a belt. There was an ebony knife comfortable tucked in the belt, carved sharp from a giant fish bone.

"You wouldn't dare!" Niara hissed. "You can't force me to be your mate. Aslan would be greatly disappointed."

At this Jylese just grinned again. He drew the knife.

"But I'm not going to kill you. And why don't you want to be my mate? Is it because you have someone else on your mind? Perhaps that Son of Adam?" Jylese whirled up to her and held the knife to her throat.

"Jylese, no," Niara said weakly. She felt the cold knife brushing her skin. "You're being very immature."

"So are you. Do you want to wait another year?" Jylese said.

"I can. There's nothing wrong with it," was the choked reply.

"Yes there is. I might be taken then," Jylese slurred. He grabbed Niara around the waist, where she began to protest as male nymphs had never touched females like this before, and swam away.

"EDMUND!" she screamed.

Had she just said that?

Edmund jerked awake. The sun was not even up yet. The eastern sky was just beginning to pale. He had always woken up early, but not this early. Why had he woken up? He had heard someone shout his name, as clear as if they had been standing right next to him and shouted in his ear.

He went out to the balcony and breathed in the fresh sea air. Suddenly, he saw two figures shooting through the water.

"Dolphins," he muttered. But then they emerged from the cold clear water and he saw heads.

Jylese. Niara.

She was struggling. Jylese was fighting her. He had to help.

Sorry it's so short! Next chapter is longer!