Hi? Please don't kill me! I know it's been a while, but I'm back now because quarantine. Hopefully I'll actually complete this fanfiction some time, but honestly who knows.
For those of you who haven't read Siblings, I highly suggest you read that first. This is the sequel to that story. I guess it still might make sense without it, but it would work a lot better with it.
This fanfic follows the plot of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie, not the book.
I don't own Narnia (obviously)
I really missed them, all of them. They were like an extension of my family. I spent many nights wondering why I'd kissed Edmund. I was too impulsive. A part of me wondered if I actually loved him. He was the first boy I had ever liked. I was immature and young. Too young to romantically love anyone. But despite this, I still thought of him daily. I kept his electric torch, just in case he returned one day.
In the first year, I held out hope that they would return, even though I knew they wouldn't. As a distraction, I threw myself into cleaning up the kingdom. Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be for the Narnians and the Telmarines to live together in harmony. After the Pevensies and Caspian ascending to the throne, their attitudes towards each other had completely turned around.
Of course, it wasn't always smooth sailing. There were many fights that broke out between the two peoples. Some people, both Narnian and Telmarine, opposed Caspian's leadership. That was when he really needed me by his side, to be his ally and supporter. Even without me, I'm sure he would have been able to assert his dominance by himself. By the start of the second year without the Pevensie siblings, the fights had mostly subsided and nearly everyone had accepted Caspian as their leader. He really was an inspiring leader and was the first to start rebuilding the various things that had been destroyed in the battle, including the bridge across the Fords of Beruna.
I had to take my place as a "lady of the court." It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I attended balls for all occasions and had to dance with many men, young and old, who were there to make diplomatic connections. I made a couple friends with those who wanted to be there about as much as I did, but no lasting friendships.
Once negotiations were made in the neighboring nations, we moved on to the Giants of the North. That was slightly terrifying, but they surrendered unconditionally. The Calormen armies did not surrender quite as easily, however. We fought them in the Great Desert and defeated them. This victory came at a cost. Thousands of Narnians and Calormen alike died during the battles. Trumpkin the Dwarf, our "Dear Little Friend," was gravely injured. He lived, but he was significantly weakened and unable to fight or run for long periods of time.
After the Calormen victory, there was, for the first time in centuries, peace across all Narnia. In that peace, Caspian decided to track down the 7 lords of Telmar, our father's most loyal friends, who had been banished when Miraz took the throne. They were banished to the Lone Islands and had not been heard from since. Caspian handpicked a crew to go with him to the Lone Islands, including me, Reepicheep, and a skilled navigator named Drinion, along with about twenty others. This is where things get interesting.
It had been about three years since the Pevensies returned to their world. I still thought about them almost daily, but I'd accepted that they won't return, at least not in my lifetime.
"Courtney!" Caspian called from across the deck, "Can you please come over here?"
"Why?" I asked.
"Please? I want you to settle an argument."
"Fine." I walked over to where he and Reepicheep were standing. "What seems to be the issue?"
"Your Highness," Reepicheep said. He refused to drop the title, no matter how many times I had asked him to. "The King and I were discussing the lovely-"
"Man overboard!" A shout from the main deck interrupted. My eyes quickly scanned the ocean in the general direction of the man's pointed finger and located the man, or rather men. They weren't far, maybe one or two hundred yards out from the boat's starboard side. Then again, I still wasn't great at estimating the distance from the ship, so I could have been hundreds of yards off.
I pulled off my outer coat and let it drop to the ground, ignoring the fact that it "wasn't proper." The sword at my hip dropped with it. I heard a splash. It was, of course, Caspian, being the hero that he was. I dove in after him. A third man followed us, Rithuso, I believed his name to be.
We got close the three men rather quickly, leading me to believe that my estimate was actually correct. Since we were closer, I realized that one of the men was, in fact, a woman. The three of them were struggling to stay above the surface. One of the males dropped below the surface of the water. I closed the distance between us as quickly as I could and dove down to get him. I grabbed him by the arm and kicked as hard as I could to bring us both back to the surface.
He spluttered and spat out water. "It's okay," I said, "I got you." He turned at my voice and my expression of shock mirrored his. "Edmund?" I nearly lost my grip on his arm.
"Courtney?"
I moved past my shock for a second to remember that we were in the middle of the ocean. "We'll deal with it later." I said, my voice colder than I meant it to be.
"I want to go back to England!" A voice yelled. It was the other man, boy. He looked a little younger than me. I recognized the other person to be Lucy, whom Caspian had rescued.
"Lucy!" I called, excited to see her again.
"Courtney!"
"We can catch up on the Dawn Treader," Caspian said, being the sensible one. He led the way with Lucy, while I followed with Edmund and Rithuso followed with the whining boy. The swim back was silent, at least between me and Edmund. Caspian and Lucy talked a little and the other boy said that he wanted to go back to England again.
Once we were back on the ship, Caspian, Rithuso, and I each grabbed two towels. I threw one to Edmund then attempted to dry myself off with mine. Before any of us could talk, the other boy started yelling. "Get that thing off me! Get it off!" He threw Reepicheep off him.
"Reepicheep!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Oh. Your Majesties," Reepicheep said.
"Hello, Reep. What a pleasure."
"The pleasure is all mine. But first, what to do about this hysterical interloper?"
"That giant rat… thing just tried to claw my face off!" The "hysterical interloper" said.
"I was merely trying to expel the water from your lungs, sir."
"It talked! Did you see?" He looked around as though expecting us to be surprised.
Despite my questionable standing with Edmund, I learned over and whispered, "Who's he?"
"My cousin, Eustace," he answered.
"He always talks," Drinian said in response to Eustace's outburst.
"It's getting him to shut up that's the trick," Caspian added. I snickered.
"The moment there is nothing to be said, Your Majesty, I promise you, I will not say it." Reepicheep defended himself.
"I don't know what kind of prank this is," Eustace said, "But I want to wake up right now!"
"Perhaps we could throw him back," Reepicheep suggested to Edmund. He appeared to be thinking about it. I was also considering it.
"Edmund!" Lucy chided.
Eustace walked right up to Drinian, "I demand to know just where in the blazes am I?"
The first mate, Tavros, went up behind him, "You're on the Dawn Treader, the finest ship in Narnia's navy." Eustace turned to see who spoke and promptly fainted. Tavros also happened to be a minotaur. "Was it something I said?" He asked, confused.
"See to him, will you?" Caspian said.
"Your Majesty." Tavros pulled on a face, but picked up the fallen boy and took him down into the belly of the ship, presumably to deposit him somewhere comfortable.
Caspian went to the helm. Lucy and Edmund followed him, hair still dripping. "Men," Caspian addressed the crew, who had all gathered on the main deck. "Behold our castaways," He gestured to the Pevensie siblings, "Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant."
Courtney's being slightly aloof with Edmund? Eustace is being annoying and Courtney is already prepared to throw him off the ship? Our little Court has changed in the three years since we last saw her.
Sorry this first chapter's kinda short. It'll get longer from here. Probably.
Also, would y'all rather I write the entire story and upload it all at once, or update as I write, maybe one or two a week? If I wait until I write everything, it might be a couple months, but it will be completed. Let me know!
Character ages:
Edmund: 15
Lucy: 13
Eustace: 14
Caspian: 18
Courtney: 16