Sorry guys, I meant to update sooner but I've been a little busy! This isn't a particularly long chapter but I'm going away for a few days and won't be able to update so I'm determined to do it today! Thank you to everyone who's reviewed previously, the support for this story is just amazing! Please review again guys, I really, really love reading about your appreciation! Enjoy!
Edmund jolted awake, his heart beating erratically from the unnatural awakening. It did not become any slower at the sight of Esha in the gloom in front of him, dressed in nothing but her nightdress.
"Sorry." She whispered, her face cast in shadows but her large eyes still distinguishable. "I couldn't sleep; I'm wide awake from Lucy's cordial."
"It's ok." Edmund whispered back, closing his eyes briefly and breathing deeply in an effort to calm the blood surging through his body. "Are you feeling ok? There's no pain or anything...?" He suddenly asked, his eyes flying open.
"Of course not. The cordial's magical." She said simply, slightly confused as to why Edmund was asking.
"Right. You, sorry, I'm still slightly asleep." He said, remembering the way he'd felt after receiving Lucy's cordial on numerous occasions; wide awake, alert and energised. He carefully swung his legs out of his hammock and jumped down, checking they had woken no-one.
"What are you doing?" She asked in alarm. "You don't need to sacrifice your own sleep just because I'm awake! I just came to see if you were by chance awake..."
"No, honestly, it's ok. We need some 'us' time." He said, rubbing a hand through his hair in an absentminded attempt to organise it. He took her hand and led her slowly back along the ships lower deck, being careful to avoid the gently swaying hammocks and anything littering the floor. He allowed her to go up the step ladder first, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
On the deck he could see the two guards talking quietly and trying to keep each other awake on the poop deck, not even bothering to check if anyone was coming when they were docked in what was not a safe land.
Edmund put a warning finger to his lips and silently led Esha down the gangplank and onto the harbour pier.
"I think a barefoot walk in the moonlight is just what we need." He whispered quietly to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight against his side as the two began to meander slowly down the length of the harbour. She responded by putting her arm around his waist, her fingers clenching hold of his shirt securely.
"I never got the chance to thank you earlier, for saving me." She finally said after a lengthy silence; it was not an uncomfortable silence, merely the kind of silence you get between people who are relaxed enough in each other's company to not feel the need to constantly talk. "It seems you're always saving me." She reflected. "Like my knight in shining armour – or rather – my king in shining armour." She said in a much more upbeat tone.
He chuckled a little and didn't say anything in response, simply revelling in the feeling induced by being called her 'king in shining armour'.
"I hope Caspian doesn't wake and find us gone; he might assume we've been kidnapped or something." She suddenly said a little worriedly.
"Relax, he'll see it's only you and I who've gone and realise it's so we can be alone.." Edmund said, remembering something that had been troubling him just last night whilst he and Caspian had been locked up.
The two descended into silence again, their light footsteps the only sound.
"Are you ok?" She suddenly asked a little worriedly after glancing up at his face several times. "You seem a bit...distracted. Is something on your mind?"
He hid his surprise that she'd noticed; he'd been trying his hardest to act normal and to push his worries to the back of his mind.
"You are." He quickly responded with a smile, kissing her lightly on the lips in an attempt to distract her.
She smiled broadly and her happy, earnest face made him smile too.
"Tell me a bit about your world; what's your favourite part of it?" She asked suddenly.
There was a long pause as Edmund thought about all the positive points of his world. He had spent all of his time in England wishing he was in Narnia and it had made him grumpy, even angry at his world for keeping him trapped and away from where he wanted to be. But now that he was in Narnia he could think much more favourably about England and realised he had ignored what was beautiful about it, even during wartime. "My parents are there." He finally said decisively, regretting his answer as soon as it had left his lips as he realised Esha did not know where her parents were.
"And the worst bit?" She asked quickly, glossing over the subject.
"You're not there." He said just as quickly.
Esha's lips turned up in an embarrassed smile at his words and she stopped abruptly, forcing him to stop with her. Standing on her tiptoes she kissed him fully on the lips, something she had wanted to do for days but been unable to with the teasing crew around them constantly.
Edmund automatically threw his arms around her waist, pulling her flush up against him and responding enthusiastically, deepening their kiss.
They finally broke apart, their faces pale in the moonlight. "I've wanted to do that for so long." He said, nothing but raw joy in his voice.
"You're not the only one." She replied, resting her forehead against his.
"So, now it is your turn, what is the best bit about the new Narnia?" He asked, beginning to continue down the harbour, holding firmly onto her hand.
"All the things I'm learning from the Old Narnians." She said simply.
"And the worst?"
"You're not here." Edmund gave the same smile as Esha had only moments before; this was perfect, it was making him completely happy even though he knew that if he was watching this happening in a film in England he'd be struggling to hold back making retching noises at the sugary sweetness of it all.
"What are you thinking?" She asked with a suppressed smile, watching his face closely in the moonlight.
"I'm remembering something in my world; they're called films, or movies; and they tell stories about people; it's played at a cinema and you can see the people like you would in real life, but they're bigger and on a flat screen." He began, unsure exactly how to explain films to her when she could never understand without seeing them.
"And what kind of stories do they tell?" She asked as he paused and began to reconsider his explanation.
"War stories, love stories are really common, most films are based around love..."
"But why would someone let other people see their love life? I mean...it's private, you don't broadcast it to everyone, you - "
"No no no, the stories aren't real! I mean...they're probably based on people's real life love stories but the people in the films are called actors, and they pretend to be different people and they relate stories that have been written, like a book; books are often adapted into films.."
"Oh I see." She said, smiling at her own mistake. "Do lots of people watch these films?"
"Yeah. Loads of people. I guess they like to dream that one day they'll get the same happy ending as the people in the story." Edmund mused, beginning to think about his own life as a story.
"I sometimes think our lives could be turned into a story." She said and Edmund jumped a little at how similar they were.
"So do I." He admitted.
"The trouble is you'd have to be really picky or you'd end up with a really big book. I mean; would you start from when you and your brothers and sisters came to Narnia, when you left it and then skip to everything that happened last year? And then skip again to what's happening now? Or would you break it up into separate books?"
"I'd do a book for the Golden Age, another for last year and another for this year, and then I'd write a separate book altogether just for us." He said, pulling her to a stop and kissing her again, revelling in the fact that he could do that after going a whole year without even being able to see her face in reality.
"I think we should stargaze." She suddenly said.
Edmund's eyebrows furrowed together at the unexpectedness of it. "Stargaze?" He checked. She nodded earnestly and he let her pull him off the wooden harbour and onto the neighbouring gentle slope of grass.
"Stargazing is supposed to be really romantic. Everyone knows that." She stated, lying down flat on the grass, goose pimples rising all along her body at the contact with the cool and slightly damp grass. Edmund laughed a little at her and lay down too opposite her, positioning his head carefully so that her left cheek was pressed up against his right.
"This is my idea of heaven, lying here with you." She said quietly, closing her eyes and trying to commit the happy moment to her memory forever, knowing that she was about to ruin it. "You know after you died last time?" She asked hesitantly, feeling him automatically tense a little at her words. "What exactly happened?" She asked, unable to help herself.
"I was gone straight away, and I turned up in the middle of nowhere, a luscious field filled with nothing but nature and bordered by trees...I just sort of lay there for a while, completely at peace with everything, and then Aslan appeared and told me what had happened and that I had to go and see you, to explain why I'd had to die. And then it was like every time I blinked the field had faded a bit and the room you were in had become clearer. And when I was finished with my mission with you, I went back to the field for a little, and then just returned to the train station at the same time as my siblings. And then I didn't feel happy or relaxed anymore; the crushing weight of what we've all been through finally hit me."
"You don't hate me for it, do you?" She whispered.
"No!" He protested, flipping over and looming over her. "It's not like you were even doing anything, you weren't to know, I don't blame you for any of it. "Besides, I could never hate you." He finished quietly, unable to help himself as he stretched out a finger and began to gently trace her face, first her eyebrows, then eyes, then lips. At first she simply closed her eyes and gave a content sigh, but as he traced her lips she gently bit his finger playfully.
He gave a little laugh and reprimanded her by tapping her nose with the same finger.
"You know, I don't think I've ever seen your face in moonlight." He said. She made an agreeing noise in her throat. "We've been out in the moonlight together, but I've never really studied your face in it."
"No. And I've never seen you face at dawn or dusk either." She mused.
He suddenly jumped up, pulling her up after him. "Well, one thing at a time, we've conquered moonlight tonight, dawn and dusk can wait for now."