THE BLACK FIRE
Chapter 4
King of Narnia
Thump, clump, thump, clump, thump, clump…
"What's that?" Mallory asked Wade, with a hint of fear in her voice.
"I'm not sure, let's just listen for a minute."
"It sounds like a horse."
"I think you're right, but we ca--."
"Shhhh," hissed Mallory, "someone's talking."
"Jaq, what exactly did this intruder look like?" said a voice that sounded like a young man.
"Why, it looked very much human," said a high squeaky voice, "but it was wearing the strangest looking attire I have ever seen."
The voices and the horse were now coming closer and Wade and Mallory could see a faint outline of what was coming in their direction. Wade knew that he and Mallory couldn't run into the wood to hide (they were still standing in the open by the waterfall) because they would surely be seen.
"Oh, stop here your majesty! This is where I saw the intruder," this high squeaky voice said," it was standing right at the waterfall."
"All right, Jaq," replied the young man and quietly dismounted the horse. Mallory and Wade figured whom ever the squeaky voice belonged to was perched on the young man's shoulder. Cautiously the young man walked a few steps nearer the waterfall and as if it was a natural reaction, Wade and Mallory tried to take a few steps away from the young man, but Wade accidentally stepped on Mallory's food, and she let out a soft whimper of pain.
"Who goes there?" boomed the young man's voice and appeared to have drawn a sword from his side.
"Ah, sir," began Wade in a shaky voice," we are just two kids."
"Step closer so I can see you."
Mallory and Wade obeyed. There was scraping noise and then a light appeared, for the young man had lit a lantern. It was then that Mallory and Wade could see what stood before them: there was a young man who looked only a few years older than Wade and Mallory. He had a cheerful face, bright green eyes, and short brown hair, and was wearing a mail shirt with a golden Lion in a sea of red on the front. Mallory also noticed his sword was no longer drawn; it was resting safely at his side (neither Mallory nor Wade had seen him put it away). And there perched on his left shoulder was a squirrel, a very large squirrel at that matter, which was carrying a bow and a quiver full of arrows. (The high squeaky voice obviously belonged to the squirrel and if you were reading carefully you would have realized his name was Jaq.) Jaq seemed to have a curious look on his face as his eyes examined Mallory and Wade before he exclaimed in a very shrill voice:
"Your majesty, that is him! He is the intruder I saw this afternoon! They are both intruders!"
"Jaq, settle down! Neither of them are intruders; just a couple of kids."
"If your majesty's sure…"
"Now what are your names?" the young man asked Wade.
By now Wade thought there wasn't really anything to be afraid of and answered him with ease.
"That's Mallory," he said motioning to Mallory," and I'm Wade, sir."
"No need to call me 'sir'. My name is King Matthew of Narnia, and that's Jaq."
"You're a king?" Mallory blurted out, "Why you hardly look old enough to be king!"
"I hear that quite often," laughed King Matthew, "I'm only 16 you know, but I am indeed a king. Now, how old might the two of you be?"
"We're both 14," replied Mallory.
"And how, might I ask, did you come to arrive in Narnia?"
So Wade and Mallory told King Matthew how they came to arrive in Narnia by crawling through the bottom of a trunk.
"Very interesting," King Matthew said when they finished their story. "Where did you say you were from again?"
"From the United States," answered Wade.
"Never heard of it."
"Excuse me, King Matthew of Narnia," began Wade, "could we just call you Matt? It would become a real mouthful if we had to call you King Matthew of Narnia all the time."
"Why or course you can! Now I do believe that you both should come back with me to my castle, Cair Paravel, where you can eat and get some rest."
"All right," said Wade.
"Sounds good to me," Mallory chimed in.
"Now we all can't possible ride on my horse, Victory. So Wade and I shall walk and the lady Mallory may ride on Victory if she wishes."
"If you wouldn't mind, I would prefer to never be called a lady again because as I recall, I told you I was 14," said Mallory in a matter of fact voice, "And no, I'll walk with the two of you."
"Quite a feisty one," Matt (as I may call him) whispered to Wade.
"I haven't lost my hearing, you know," shot Mallory with a grin on her face.
"Yeah, but you get used to her," Wade said to Matt and they both started laughing.
"Ha, ha," mimicked Mallory.
"Now let us be off," ordered Matt.
"I must be off, now too your majesty," replied Jaq as he jumped off Matt's shoulder.
"Very well then, Jaq," said Matt,"Take care."
"Bye, Jaq!" said Mallory and Wade in unison.
Jaq nodded his head at them and he quickly scurried off into the wood with his brown fluffy tail twitching behind him.
"Well now let's go," said Matt, putting out the lantern, which startled Wade and Mallory because they had forgotten that it had been the lantern giving them light to see. It was now noticeably darker than it had been when Wade and Mallory arrived in Narnia. After everyone's eyes adjusted to the darkness Matt took Victory's reigns and the small group started out to Cair Paravel.
A/N: PLEASE R & R! Wouldn't somebody like to be my first reviewer?