Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia nor any of the characters and places associated with it.
Chapter 17: News
The feeling of burning heat on my satin covered back is what wakes me up this morning, or is it afternoon, I can't really tell. I keep my eyes shut tightly and keep my breathing even. I don't want to disturb Peter in case he's still asleep. I snuggle in even closer to his warm chest and the grip that he has around me tightens a great deal. He's awake and he knows that I am as well, I can sense it. I feel his lips touch the top of my head and I smile at the simple, loving gesture.
"Good morning," I say tiredly. I just slept for I don't know how long and I'm still tired. How does that work?
"Good afternoon more like it. The sun is directly above us meaning that it's around twelve pm," he explains happily. I prop myself up on my elbow and look at his face. He smiles at me, but not his usual drop-dead smile. It's a tired looking one. I wonder how long he's been awake for. "How are you feeling?" he asks me, while pushing a loose strand of my hair behind my ear.
"Perfect! I am absolutely and completely brilliant!" I exclaim happily, while falling back onto his muscular chest. He smiles down at me.
"I'm glad. So what would you like to do today?" I think about his question for a split second.
"Can we go and look around. This place looks so beautiful, I just want to relax and enjoy our time together. Please." He smiles gleefully at me and plays with the fingers on my hand.
"Alright then. Why don't we get up and have some lunch and then we can go out and do everything you want to," he recommends. I smile and give him a kiss on the lips, before jumping out of bed. He smiles at me lovingly and follows my lead.
"I don't think we should worry about a bath if we are going to be swimming in fresh water today," I say while walking over to the closet where all our clothes are.
"I think you are right," he agrees simply. He walks over to me and puts one arm around my waist and uses his other free hand to go through all the dresses that are in a line of colour order. He pulls out a light violet and white one and gives it to me. I have to admit, he has good taste. I smile and give him a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you," I say as I slide out of my nighty and grab the undergarments that are needed for the outfit. I toss them on, before sliding into the long dress. I wonder if Aslan got dryads to make all these clothes for us. I've never seen any of these dresses before. I glance over at Peter and realise that he's already dressed and watching me with a smirk. I walk over to him casually and playfully push him onto the bed. He chuckles at me so I stick my tongue out at him.
"You are so immature," he says before grabbing my hand and pulling me down onto the bed with him. I giggle as I land on the soft mattress. He laughs along with me. I don't know how, but we end up on the ground in a long heated kiss, with him on top of me.
"Can we please have some lunch now?" I ask against his lips. He smiles and pulls away in a matter of seconds.
"Sure, what would you like, my angel?" he asks while getting up off the floor and pulling me up into his warm embrace.
"Um...apple pie," I say randomly. He looks at me curiously.
"You want apple pie for lunch?" he inquires with a raised eyebrow. I nod. "Well okay then my random, odd wife," he whispers so quietly that I almost don't hear it.
I think that was the point. I grimace, but decide to disregard the thought. Peter shakes his head suddenly as if trying to dismantle a thought and pulls me down the stairs. Once we get to the light kitchen, he sits me down on one of the chairs at the dining table, before he walks over to the kitchen and gets out two plates and two forks. I unexpectedly hear two taps on the window behind me. I spin around quickly and...
"Ahh!" I scream while jumping so high that I fall off my chair. The griffon laughs at me as does my loving and caring husband. I glare at Peter as I quickly right myself and sit back down properly on the seat.
"Apple Pie delivery," the griffon says in between gasps after Peter has opened the window. The smell of the glorious pie immediately makes my stomach grumble causing me to chuckle. How did he know?
"Thank you," I hear Peter say before I hear the window close. He's in front of me then, holding the pie in his hands. It looks delicious and the smell wafting off of it is incredible.
"Come on, Ash. Pies here," he says holding the yummy quiche near my face for me to smell. I am about to take a bite out of it when he pulls it away. I pout and all he does is – laugh. What a great husband I have! "We have to share," he states simply while cutting it down the middle. He puts both pieces on separate plates and pushes the biggest slice over to me. "Enjoy," he says with his mouth full. I mumble something unintelligible under my breath before taking the first bite. Once we have finished our breakfast, or should I say lunch, we wash up before heading outside. It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining happily in the bright, blue sky, the birds are singing their jolly songs and the beautiful stream is sparkling excitedly, but I can't seem to get rid of the feeling that is bubbling furiously inside me. For some odd reason, I feel the need to leave our paradise right now and go and kill someone. Peter must notice my distraction. He stops suddenly and turns to look at me. "What's wrong?" he inquires while brushing some of my loose hair away from my face. I grimace.
"I feel like something bad is going to happen while we're away," I tell him. He smiles comfortingly and pulls me into him for a gentle hug.
"Can you please relax? We're on a holiday. We can worry about the outside world when we're actually there to do something about it," he whispers quietly in my ear. I nod before pulling away from his tight grip and grabbing his hand. He smiles at me before we continue slowly through the light, airy forest.
3 weeks later
I stroll lazily into the cottage. All month we've been swimming, climbing, and walking around – among particular other things – so right now all I want to do is sleep. I fall onto the comfy sofa and snuggle up to a pillow. I feel Peter kiss my cheek and pick me up so that I'm curled up against his chest. I vaguely hear a door open and close before I feel myself being carefully placed down onto the bed. I beam as soon as I realise that Peter has lounged down next to me. I cuddle credulously into his chest as he puts his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to his warm body. I sigh and put my arms around his neck. We're headed home tomorrow, much to my joy and dismay. I can't wait to see my family again, but at the same time I love this place so much! It's so peaceful. It almost feels like a dream. I feel Peter kiss the top of my head then before yawning loudly. Obviously, I'm not the only tired one.
"Do we have to go home?" I ask him after a long, comfortable silence. I feel him smile lightly against my head.
"Yes, unfortunately we do. I have a job to do and you have a crowning to attend to," he whispers in my ear. I smile brightly and lean up a little bit so that I can look at his face.
"You mean it?" I inquire, shocked. He chuckles a little bit.
"Yes, you're getting crowned when we get home. You married the High King don't forget," he confirms smiling. I squeal excitedly.
"This is going to be so incredible!" I exclaim, suddenly very eager to go back home. He laughs again.
"It will be fun, but it will also mean a lot of hard work. Are you sure you're ready for it?" he asks. I nod.
"Ruling is in my blood, Peter. My Great Grandparents used to be royalty, remember? I know I can do this!" I tell him earnestly.
"If you're sure, darling." He doesn't look convinced, but luckily doesn't push the subject any further, to which I'm thankful. I grimace before laying my head back down on his chest. I feel him move then and pull the sheets over our bodies. There's a long silence. I begin to wonder whether he has drifted off to sleep when I suddenly remember that I'm still in my long, green, day dress. I un-wrap Peter's arms from around me and quickly hop out of the bed. I walk over to the closet and grab my nighty that I (in other words Peter) had so carelessly tossed onto the floor this morning. I quickly strip off my dress and toss my silk, purple nighty on before walking back out into the warm bedroom and jumping back into bed. I lay down on my side facing Peter, who seems to be lost in thought. I stay quiet, knowing that if something's bothering him he will tell me. "Ash?" he asks after a few long minutes.
"Yes," I reply while playing with a few strands of his light brown – almost blond – hair. He smiles and put his hand over mine in a loving gesture.
"I was just thinking about something," he starts to say. I restrain the urge to roll my eyes at his obvious comment. He seems a little bit nervous, which is definitely out of character for him. I gesture with my free hand for him to continue. "How do you feel about having children?" he inquires curiously. My face instantly sinks.
"Why?" He smiles lightly.
"Because I was thinking that maybe we could try for a baby when we get back home," he explains. I feel my heart burst into a thousand flames as I take in his expression. He looks truly happy at the thought of becoming a father. Why me?
"Um, Peter, I have to tell you something," I say sadly. He nods. I freeze up. I can't seem to form any words as I look at his hopeful expression. This news is going to be hard to tell Peter. I was going to tell him earlier, but completely forgot. Something the doctor told me while I was alone in the sick room for the second time. Something that makes me burst out crying even at the thought of it. Something that I know will be hard for Peter as well. Something that will be the first real test of our love for one another.
"Something…" Peter encourages. I can feel my eyes starting to well up with salty tears that sting my eyes. One manages to escape and trickle down my cheek. Peter wipes it away with his thumb. He smiles at me gently and grabs my hand. "You can tell me anything." I take a deep, shaky breath in.
"Peter, I can't have children." It's eerily quiet for what feels like hours. I feel more tears roll down my cheeks as I realise that this is just going to kill Pete. I cuddle up closer to him. Not out of hurt or sorrow, but in comfort. I know just from the silence that he's hurt by this news and I hate seeing him in so much pain. His grip tightens on me and I feel a tear fall on my head. He's crying and it's my entire fault. "I'm sorry," I whisper so quietly that I'm not even sure if he heard it.
"Why are you sorry? You can't help it," he tells me in a croaky voice. I grimace. I can tell just from his voice that he's trying to hold back more tears.
"I'm sorry because I'm taking this away from you," I explain with tears flowing freely down my face. He kisses the top of my head and sighs.
"Ashley, please stop blaming yourself! You can't control these things," he says. I shake my head slowly.
"I know, but...I know how important this is to you and I know how much you want to be a father and –"
"Ashley, stop." I shut my mouth at once and look up at him expectantly. His cheeks are stained with a few tears and his eyes are red, but he's still smiling weakly at me, much to my amazement. "Okay, yes I will admit that I'm a little bit upset that we can't have our own children, but that doesn't mean that we can't be parents. I'm sure there's plenty of little fauns and centaurs in Narnia that are in need of a loving and caring home," he tells me with a sly wink. I laugh a little bit at that as Peter wipes away the last of my tears from my cheeks with his thumb.
"So you still love me then?" I ask. He smiles brightly at me before giving me a slow, loving kiss.
"Of course I still love you. This is just a bump in the road. We'll get past it eventually," he promises in a soft, gentle tone. I nod.
"Sure." I yawn then, instantly grabbing Peter's attention.
"We should both get some sleep," he suggests. I frown and shake my head.
"I'm not tired." Liar! I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the real world.
"You are. I'm your husband. I can tell," he states. I stare at him hard for a few seconds.
"I'm not though," I insist. His demeanour changes within two seconds of me saying the words. He raises an eyebrow, I bite my lip slightly. "This is our last night alone..." He smirks.
"You're going to regret you ever said that." I giggle uncontrollably before he starts kissing me passionately, all the pain from before gone like wind.
Next Day
"What on earth!" I exclaim as I wake up to find myself on the floor. How I got down here, I don't know. I hear chuckling from the top of the bed then. I blink a few times and stand up. My gorgeous husband is lying down casually on the bed grinning wickedly at me. "Did you push me off?" I ask suspiciously. He chuckles and shakes his head.
"No, Ashley, you actually rolled off the bed yourself. It was very funny to watch," he explains, chuckling again. I sigh and sit on the edge of the heather mattress. "Aslan said he would be here at nine, it is now eight so we have an hour before we have to leave." I frown at that. This place is so perfect, I never want to leave. He must read my expression because he's immediately at my side, drawing soothing circles on my back.
"Are you sure we can't stay another week?" I ask with no hope. He smiles at me and quickly gives me a kiss on my cheek. It's now that I notice how sticky my face is from crying last night. I will have to wash it in the stream later.
"Don't you want to go home and see Bella again?" he asks teasingly. I sigh and cuddle up to his side.
"Fine, you caught me," I say sadly. He laughs and gets up off the bed before quickly changing into some fresh attire. I follow suit swiftly. We head down stairs together hand-in-hand. "I'm not hungry," I state as we reach the kitchen. Peter furrows his eyebrows at me.
"You have to eat something," he says while grabbing an apple and taking a bite. I shake my head at him. He shrugs his shoulders and takes another bite of the red fruit. "Well okay, but you don't know what you are missing," he says, teasing me again. I roll my eyes at his failed attempt to taunt me.
"Whatever. I'm not hungry right now. I'll eat tonight at Cair Paravel when I am hungry," I promise. He grins at me and finishes his apple. A few minutes later we're sitting down in front of the fireplace cuddled up in each other's arms when we hear the soft sound of paws behind us. I turn in Peter's arms to see Aslan standing behind us. I sigh and stand up.
"Are you ready to head back?" Aslan asks, smiling happily at us. I take a deep breath and answer him.
"Yes, we are." Aslan nods his head slowly once before turning around and heading out. I follow him out with Peter hot on my tracks. I hear him walk a bit quicker and then I feel his warm hand in mine. I hold it tightly, never wanting to let go. As soon as we're out of the front door, the first thing I notice is that a unicorn is set up instead of a horse. The coat on her is a beautiful, snowy white and her horn is a bright, clear, water-blue.
"I figured that you would probably want to get home quickly and, seeing that unicorns are a lot faster than horses, I decided to set one up for you," Aslan explains, obviously seeing the confusion on my face.
"Thanks, Aslan," Peter says as he jumps up onto its back.
"Humph, careful! I'm not some pony from a merry-go-round," the unicorn speaks up. How weird, you don't usually see talking unicorns anymore.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," Peter says, patting its, or should I say her, back. He then looks over to me with love filled eyes and gestures me over. I smile and walk quickly over to the unicorn. Peter holds his hand out to help me up. I grab it and carefully get up onto her back. "Are you alright?" he asks me, once I'm securely on.
"Yep," I answer him, popping the 'p'. I put my arms around him and hold on for dear life. I have been on a unicorn once in my life before and it was the scariest thing that I have ever done.
"What's your name?" Peter asks the unicorn as we start to trot through the bright, green forest behind Aslan. I see her give a horsey grin before answering my attractive husband.
"Jaerlwery Aginads Dainteret Ellearety," she tells us both. There is a long silence. I have completely forgotten how long unicorn's names are. It usually takes you forever to be able to actually remember them, let alone pronounce them properly.
"Do you expect us to call you that every time we talk to you, Jarlwn Ainhlis Dinn, oh forget it!" Peter exclaims. I laugh as he tries to pronounce the name, as does the unicorn. I might not know it myself, but I do know that what he said was completely wrong. We're trotting freely through the large, rock faces now. We can see the massive horizon of our beautiful home country stretched right out in front of us. I sigh at the beautiful country. Now for the scary part! We trot down the steep cliff side slowly and carefully. It helps that the unicorn is a talking one. They seem to have a lot more sense than dumb animals. They can direct themselves without anyone helping them and they have a sense of speed, which means that we're going very slowly down it. It surprisingly takes us less time to get down than it did to go up though, even with the speed we're going at. Once we reach the bottom, we have a break. I suppose it's just to clear our heads for a bit.
I walk over to the pool that's close by and wet my face, taking off all the tear marks that had stained it last night. I look up at the sparkling waterfall that's pouring over the side of the cliff, suddenly trying to work out in my head exactly where we are. I try to remember all the places that have waterfalls so that I can get a vague idea. Let's see there's one at Mt. Pire, another one at Stormness Head, the one that connects up to the River Shribble, another one that connects up to Telmar River, one next to Shuddering wood and one at Caldron Pool. I look around at the surrounding forest and the beautiful, blue pool of water in front of me before my eyes widen. We can't possibly be at Caldron Pool. There is no path that leads up the side of the mountain next to the waterfall. I look over to where we have just come down and realise that the path we have just come down has completely disappeared and is replaced with large boulders. It's as if the rocky path was never there. Peter comes over to me then and wraps his hands around my waist and purposely starts to kiss my neck. I moan. His lips on my neck are like heaven. If I get to choose my way of dying this will be it. "What are you thinking about?" he asks in between kisses. I wish I can tell him what I'm thinking, but at the moment I can't even form a coherent sentence in my head.
"Um...well...I...would you please cut that out!" I snap. He stops instantaneously. I have to think without him kissing me. "I was just trying to work out where we are," I say softly as I turn around and wrap my hands around his neck.
"Any luck with that?" he asks. He sounds hurt and rejected. I instantly feel guilty about snapping at him. He's just trying to be nice.
"I'm sorry, Peter, about yelling at you like that. I just have to think and your kisses aren't helping at all," I apologise. He smiles down at me and gives me a short and sweet kiss on my lips. "Also to answer your question, I think we are at Caldron Pool," I continue. I lay my head underneath Peter's chin. We stand there just hugging for a second.
"Ashley." I jump at the gentle voice behind me. I didn't even hear Aslan come up to us. "You are right. This is Caldron Pool." I smile at my lucky guess. "Are you ready to keep going before the High King gets swarmed with attention from the children that are coming up here for a swim?" he asks. Peter looks down at me for a second before letting go of me and running up to where Jeamilt Amaewsd, (Oh Pete's right; that is a mouthful), the unicorn, is standing and flings himself up onto her back. I grimace and run up as well. Peter picks me up by my shoulders and puts me in front of him. Obviously he feels it's safer to have me sit where he can see me and hold me in his arms. I can't say that I'm complaining. We start moving immediately.
"I just realised that I forgot to give you my nick name," the unicorn starts. I feel Peter tense up for a second.
"You have a nickname?" he asks through gritted teeth. I stifle a laugh.
"Yes. You can also call me Jade," she says. I smile. I've always loved unicorn's basic nick names. Peter starts mumbling unintelligible words under his breath.
"Thanks for letting us know," I thank her while giving her back a pat.
"That's alright. Now, hold on tight," she says before she speeds off at the speed of light. I swear I just lost my stomach. We ride on for about one hour before we finally reach the golden gates. That's got to be some sort of record. We pass through the gates and ride through the busy town, where we receive "welcome homes" from everyone around us. We finally reach the stable and Peter jumps off to help me down.
"PETER, ASHLEY!" I hear a little high-pitched voice shout out. I turn around and am suddenly attacked by a very-excited, little Lucy. "I'm so glad you're back. I really missed you. Don't you ever leave me with Edmund again! He got Susan drunk and built a ride out of an ironing board that smashed into your room and...and oh I'll tell you all the stories later!" she tells us both. I smile and kiss her hair. I decide to ignore the last few lines and just focus on the gorgeous little girl in front of me.
"We missed you too," I say. She looks up at me and beams brightly. She gives me another quick hug and then goes and gives Peter one. "Lucy, where's Bella? I've really missed her. I've never been away from her for this long," I say once she's done with all the hugs. Lucy's face sinks before she suddenly disappears inside. A second later Malina comes out. She walks up to us slowly and instead of giving me a hug like she usually does, she puts her head down. "Mal, are you okay?" I ask her. She shakes her head and looks at me.
"No, I'm not, but, before I tell you why, you're both going to need to sit down," she commands. I nod and pull Peter over to one of the benches in one of the many gardens of the castle. My mind is instantly running with ideas. Is she sick? Has one of her family members died? Is she pregnant?
"What's going on?" I inquire as Peter begins drawing love hearts on my back. She takes a shaky breath in before continuing.
"Um...well...Ashley...Bella died."
