Chapter Six: Before The Battle

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This Chapter has a lot of reminiscing in it, I sort of wanted to add this in here to show how much Caspian and Susan think about the time they spent together and what it meant to them, so enjoy, I promise they'll meet soon

Enjoy! And don't forget to review!

Chapter Six: Before The Battle

Caspian had barley slept that night; he had awoken early and was bombarded with things to do!

He had spent the first four hours of the morning looking at plans, trying to make sure everything was in order, but thankfully he needn't worry about the Narnian camp for it was being Commanded by someone who Trumpkin assured Caspian that was "very Capable"

"We have the Narnian archers waiting in the woods, they'll have cover from the trees" said Trumpkin, "Did you tell there commander that I wanted some of them positioned in the trees?" asked Caspian, "Yes! And I think the fact that were using the forest on top of the cliff will be a great advantage" said Adam, "alright" said Caspian yawning, "My King perhaps you should get some rest?" asked Trumpkin concerned, "No! I'm fine! What are our second unit doing?" asked Caspian, "there collecting food in the Forest" said Adam, "I shall go join them, make sure all men are armored within the next two hours" said Caspian walking away, he mounted Destier and rode into the forest, he was tired! So tired!

Susan was walking amongst the trees checking the small platforms that had been built in the trees for the archers to stand on, they had been up all night building them and Susan was covered in dirt, "Susan! What are you doing?" asked Peter walking over to his sister, "Checking the Platforms!" said Susan annoyed that he was asking a stupid question, "Susan you look terrible!" said Peter, "Thanks Peter!" snapped Susan, "Susan go to the stream have a wash then go to your tent and go to sleep" said Peter in a commanding tone, "Why?" asked Susan, "Because I wont have my sister falling out of a tree in the middle of a battle because she's fallen asleep, and you know you always sleep better after you've had a wash" said Peter grabbing Susan by the shoulder and pushing her out of the archery area, "Thanks Pete" said Susan smiling at her brother and going to her tent, she grabbed her cleaning materials she mounted Shadowfare not bothering to grab a saddle and rode into the forest.

Caspian walked through the forest dragging his feet, he was walking in the direction of a stream, and he had bought a net and was planning to catch some fish, as he walked along he thought about Susan, the first time he met her:
"Aslan?" Caspian heard a voice say in a close distance and he immediately hid behind the tree. He could see, it was a little girl, pulled down by a boy around his age.
His eyes narrowed the Minotaur to walked along, as if nothing happened, he obviously hadn't heard the girl's out burst. Caspian watched, the boy came from behind the bushes, drawing his sword out. Caspian's muscles were tense, ready to react and do whatever he wished them to, his senses were keen and ready to fight.
The boy raised his sword and that triggered Caspian's muscles. He jumped out of his hiding place, yelling and beating the boy's sword up. He must've been pretty skilled, because he reacted immediately and swung his sword, Caspian blocked it, they exchanged a couple of ringing clashes, Caspian blocked once more, his sword aiming down, the boy brought his fighting hand up and hit Caspian with the sword's handle in the face. Caspian felt his lower lip break and he tasted a few drips of his own blood. He didn't stop, he attacked, blocked and then crossed his blade with the boy. The boy pushed it aside and Caspian's sword flew away, ripped out of his hand. The boy swung his sword for a couple of times, Caspian dodging it and backing away towards a tree, hoping he would manage to trick the boy. And he was right, the boy swung his sword heavily, Caspian dodged and the blade stuck into the tree. Caspian rose, kicked the boy, sending him away and grabbed at his sword's handle, trying to pull it out. With a corner of his eye he saw the boy pick something up and jump towards him, he realized it was a rock and the boy was aiming at his head.
"No, stop!" came the same voice Caspian heard before.
He and the boy turned and saw a little girl, the same one he saw a moment ago. He heard the Narnian's appear all around them, ready to protect their King and he pulled out the sword, aiming it at the boy, who was looking around, disbelievingly.
"Prince Caspian?" the boy asked, obviously not believing what he was seeing.
"Yes," said Caspian warningly. "And who are you?"
"Peter!" came a sharp shout and two more people appeared. A dark haired girl pointing a bow and a boy with dark hair running to the little girl huddled behind the log…
Caspian looked at the sword he was holding and saw an ancient spell carved on it's blade. He looked at the boy and his eyes went wide.
"High King Peter?" he more stated than asked.
"I believe you called," the boy said sarcastically.
"Well, yes, but…" Caspian was not exactly sure how to put it. "I thought you would be older," he finally said, seeing that they all seemed to be even younger than he was.
"If you like, we can come back in a few years," King Peter said. The little girl giggled,
"No, no, it's fine, it's just… You're not exactly what I expected," Caspian said, looking at each of the royal siblings. King Peter, King Edmund, Queen Susan, Queen Lucy… wait, Queen Susan…
He took a double glance at her. Oh, she was so beautiful… he looked at her, smiling slightly, she looked at him, her body was half turned away but she was looking out the side of her eyes, her lips twitched into a small smile, but she then looked away at the ground, blushing.

Susan walked through the forest, she was going to see Caspian soon she knew it, she could feel it, she was filled with a sense of hope, but, a thought that kept popping up into her mind, what if he would be angry when he knew they had been in Narnia and he didn't know, was he going to be sad or angry? Was he going to be hurt? Hurt by the fact that so many people had lied to him? Would he feel betrayed? She thought of the first time she had witnessed Caspian being truly betrayed:
"I don' want to do this!" a women was saying, her voice shaky with emotions.
They barged into the room. Caspian was standing near Miraz's bed, holding his sword to the throat of his uncle, who was standing in front of him, and Miraz's wife was aiming at Caspian from her crossbow.
"We don't want you to either!" Susan said, aiming her bow at her, while Peter pulled out his sword. Miraz rested his hands on his hips.
"And this is supposed to be a private room," he said.
"What are you doing here?!" Peter demanded from Caspian, who didn't even seem to notice or hear him. "You were supposed to be at the gatehouse!" he shouted.
"No!" Caspian shouted terribly. Susan noticed he almost had tears in his eyes. "Tonight for once I want the truth," he spoke, his voice shaking with anger. He pushed Miraz to the wall. "Did you kill my father?!" he asked, his voice almost crashing Miraz with it's force.
Silence fell upon the room as all five hearts in it were beating wildly.
"You said your brother died in his sleep," Prunaprisma, Caspian's aunt said, looking at Miraz, but keeping her crossbow aimed at Caspian.
"That was more or less true," Miraz answered, still looking at Caspian.
"Caspian, this won't make things any better!" Susan tried to reason, death was not the answer to anything.
"We, Telmarines wouldn't have anything if we had not
taken it!" Miraz spat, looking at Caspian. "Your father knew that as well as any of us."
"How could you…?" Prunaprisma stuttered, her voice shaking.
"For the same reason you will pull that trigger!" Miraz yelled. "For our son!"
Caspian launched towards Miraz, pressing the blade closer to his throat. Prunaprisma screamed and aimed the crossbow at the Prince, Susan aimed at her and Peter raised his sword, ready to fight whoever would come up to him first.

Susan's fingers started to hurt, she had pulled her string so tight, she feared it would break if she didn't release her arrow soon. The tension in the room was suffocating her!
"Make up your mind, dear," Miraz was hissing to his wife, not taking his eyes off of Caspian. "Do you want our child to be the King? Or do you want him to be like Caspian here… Fatherless!!"

Caspian raised his sword, about to bring it crashing down on his Uncle's head.
"No!!" Prunaprismia shouted and pulled the trigger. The arrow split Caspian's left arm and he fell back on the chair, clutching his wounded arm, his face winced in pain, while Miraz ran to the door, Peter chasing him.

Caspian went to the river just under the waterfall, he knew this was where the fish came to eat, he laid the net through the water and sat on the bank, it wouldn't take long for the net to fill up, and once it did he had a centaur standing near by, who could help him carry it back to the camp.
The net was full Caspian pulled it up out of the water, the silver fish flopped around on the grass, they were silver and there scales were shimmering in the sun, shimmering like… ice:
The ice started to break, as a blade came through it, directly through The Witch's stomach. She screamed and the ice wall exploded and collapsed to the ground, revealing Edmund, holding his sword.
"I know," he said. "You had it sorted."
Caspian could see was the carving of Aslan, now revealed from behind the ice wall, looking at them with worry. How is it possible that a carving can change expressions…?
Caspian heard a rustle and he noticed Susan standing in the entrance. Her eyes were full of disappointment.
Caspian looked at her, his eyes shining with plead for forgiveness, feeling so guilty… She looked at him with the same disappointment and it made his young heart die. She then turned around and walked out of the room.

Caspian looked around that memory was painful to recall, and it seemed he had done so with out even meaning to.
Destier walked over to Caspian, "Do you think you could carry this?" he asked Destier mockingly, Destier nudged him and Caspian smiled. Destier reminded Caspian of another fond memory he had regarding Susan:
Caspian grabbed Susan foot and gentle placed it in the stirrup "Your in safe hands" he finished looking up at Susan who was refusing to look at him, "Or hooves" Lucy commented, "Good luck" said Caspian looking at Susan, "Thanks" grumbled Susan looking at him quickly, she really was mad at him, if she was this mad at him he didn't deserve to have one of her most prized positions, Caspian had been dodging giving it back to her, preferring to have it because it reminded him of her, "this is yours" said Caspian producing the horn from his belt, "It should be returned to you" said Caspian holding onto the horn with the very edges of his fingertips holding it up for Susan, right now she was going to take it, the only thing he had that connected him to her, "Keep it" she said off handedly looking at him, Caspian looked up at her, "you might need to call me again" she said smiling cheekily, she then spurred Destier and was out of the room in seconds, Caspian smiled after her, "you might need to call me again?" he heard Lucy ask he could tell there was a hint of laughter in her voice, "oh shut up!" he heard Susan say with a deep voice that he could tell she was embarrassed.

Susan walked along the river until she came to her favorite spot, the start of the water fall, before the large water fall there were several small ones and Susan liked nothing more than to stick her head under the rushing water and let the current wash out the soap.

Stripping off her dress Susan sat on a rock that was just submerged in water near the start of a small waterfall, she laced her hair with soap, then positioning herself on the rocks under the water so she was lying down in the water Susan dunked her head under, the water rushed past her ears, and through her hair taking the soap with it, Susan lifted her head out of the water for air, then realizing soap was still in her hair, Susan dunked her head under again.

Susan walked through the shallows of the water, she had tied her hair back and was making her way to the bank, as she stepped onto the grass Susan slipped and fell and landed on her back on the grass, when had she fallen like this before?

As Susan got up and went over to her blue dress that was hanging in a tree she reminisced over another memory:

Susan was standing in the forest, "Please Lucy! Be safe!" she thought desperately she knocked an arrow, a rider was rode past, Susan took aim and loosed her arrow, it struck the solider in the chest, she knocked another arrow and loosed it, it buried itself in the soldiers head, she knocked another arrow and barley took aim before she loosed it, they were getting to close, this arrow buried itself in the soldiers chest again, they were getting too close, she pulled the bow up and went to aim but the solider was too close he rode past her swing his sword and knocked her on the ground, he rode onwards on his way to Lucy, "Oh no!" thought Susan, she could still save her, she could reach her bow it wasn't that far, she stretched out her hand, a horse rode past almost trampling her fingers, Susan recoiled her hand and looked up, the Telmarine on the horse had stopped circling, he was going to ride straight at her, Susan crawled back slightly on her elbows, "he's going to kill me, he's going to kill me before I had a chance to save Lucy" thought Susan as he rode towards her, then out of no where Susan herd hooves and before she knew it Caspian had rode into the clearing on a horse and was dueling with the last Telmarine solider, he defeated him in three quick easy blows, he then rode his horse around to face Susan who was still lying on the ground looking up at him, where had he come from?

"Sure you don't need that horn?" asked Caspian smiling down at her, Susan smiled back, he had saved her life.

Quickly snatching up her bow, Susan ran over to the horse, Caspian extended his arm, Susan grabbed it and he pulled her up onto the horse.

Caspian grabbed the horse's rains and Susan put her arms around Caspian's shoulders, she felt safe, she felt… protected.

Susan dressed herself then walked back to camp, she needed to sleep before the battle began, she laid down on her bed in her tent and fell asleep.

Caspian rode back to camp and gave the fish to Adam.

He then went into his tent and laid down on his bed, he wasn't needed while the troops were cooking dinner and he needed sleep before the battle, he prayed to go he would dream about Susan and find some way to communicate his love to the real Susan, he could die in battle today, and all he wanted to do was hold Susan one more time and let her know how much he loved her.