Chapter Nine: Reuniting
Caspian opened his eyes, his vision was blurry, it was night time, he looked down at his chest, there was a large cut across his lower abdomen, Caspian sat up slowly, and he looked around his tent, what time was it? He thought.
Caspian sat on the edge of his bed, he pushed his hand down onto the bed but felt something hard underneath his hand, he curled his fingers around the object and pulled it up to his face, it was Susan's horn. Susan.
So many thoughts came back to Caspian's head at once, Susan, she had been on the cliff, she was fighting goblins, she was in Narnia!
Caspian threw the horn down onto the bed and stood up, he marched out of the tent his blood boiling with anger, they lied, everyone had lied to him, she was here! And they had kept it from him! Surly they knew how much she meant to him! Why hadn't they told him?
Caspian marched into the camp, he was angry, so angry.
He looked around trying to find Susan. Trying to find answered.
Susan sat in the tree, her feet dangling down over the branch.
Peter sat in the cup of the tree, where all the branches fanned out, his back was leading against a large branch, he had one foot bent to hold him in the tree the other he let dangle over the side.
Edmund was sitting up in one of the back branches, high up in the tree.
Lucy sat on one of the lower branches in the dip of the large branch, "It's nice being together!" said Lucy looking up at Susan, "Yeah" said Edmund sliding down his branch onto a lower one, "I missed you guys" said Susan lying down on the branch and dangling her head into the center of the tree near Peter and Edmund, "Me too!" said Peter, "Lets never be separated again" said Lucy climbing into the center of the tree and sitting in Peter's lap, "You got a deal Lu" said Peter Hugging her close, "Hey what's that?" asked Edmund pointing to the camp, Peter let go of Lucy who leaned forward on her hands to get a better look, Peter and Edmund climbed onto higher branches, Susan sat up and stepped into the middle of the tree holding onto a large branch that half obscured her face.
Caspian stomped into the main camp, a look of pure angry on his face, "Caspian! Good to see your up and well!" said Trumpkin smiling, Caspian ignored him and kept walking, "My King! How are you feeling?" asked Glenstorm, "Where is she?" asked Caspian in a deadly quite voice, shocked by the tone of his voice Glenstorm backed away, "Ah Caspian come to join the celebrations?" asked Adam smiling broadly, "Where is she!" demanded Caspian, "Where is who?" asked Adam still smiling, "where is she!" yelled Caspian and the music stopped, people stopped talking.
Susan flinched, the rage in his voice hit her like a knife, he was so angry, but why?
Caspian looked around accusing everyone he saw with his eyes, "You all knew! You all knew, you didn't tell me! Why?" demanded Caspian spinning around wildly waiting for someone to answer to him "My Lord, we did as Aslan asked" said Adam, a stone fell inside Caspian, "Aslan? You betrayed me because Aslan asked you to? You people who I call my friends?" asked Caspian looking around, no body answered him, no one looked at him, Caspian exhaled through his nose he could tell they were sorry, and he knew why they did it, but that didn't subside his anger.
Susan kept half her face hidden in the tree, Edmund and Peter looked down on her, Lucy looked up at her.
Caspian marched back towards his tent, as he drew closer to the tree Susan hid her face fully behind the branch, Lucy shrunk behind a branch, the boys didn't do anything they were covered by the tree's leaves and didn't need to move.
Caspian threw back the tent door cover, he heard a twig snap, he looked around at the large tree that stood looking over the camp, he looked at it for a moment and continued into his tent.
Susan sighed and leaned back in the tree, "Su?" asked Edmund, "Susan don't feel bad" said Lucy, "Susan we did as Aslan asked" said Peter, Susan looked up, "He must of known what he was doing" said Susan "Exactly" said Lucy, "well if he did then why do I feel so awful" said Susan "Susan you couldn't of told him even if you wanted to" said Edmund, "Do you think he'll forgive me?" asked Susan "I don't think its you who needs to ask for forgiveness' Susan" said Peter looking down at his sister with a sympathetic look.
Susan sighed she knew what she would have to do, but did she have the courage to do it?
xXx
Caspian had taken his shirt off and was pacing his tent, they lied to him, people who he thought were his friends had lied to him, had Susan lied to him? Had she done it willingly? Caspian felt a sharp pain from his scare, No! that was too painful to think about now, he turned his back to his door and poured himself a drink, he heard the flap of his door open, how dare anyone come into his tent, wait why hadn't the declared themselves?
Caspian moved his hand to the hilt of his sword, the persons footsteps edged closer to him, they were about to attack him, Caspian gripped his sword then spun it around, he heard the clang of metal hitting metal, he then looked down as to who the intruder was.
Susan was standing in front of him, she had blocked his sword, with a medium sized white handled sword, that she had raised above her head, she had a look of pure determination on her face that almost frightened him. Almost.
Susan held her sword above her head, there was a look of confusion and anger on Caspian's face, and another emotion she couldn't recognize.
Caspian slid his blade to the side so there blades disconnected, he did this so fast that there was a swooshing noise, it surprised Susan slightly but she didn't let it show on her face, she stared at him with the same determination.
Caspian threw his sword aside, "what are you doing in here?" he asked "we need to talk" said Susan, "I have nothing to say to you" said Caspian walking away from her, "good then you can Listen" said Susan turning around to keep her eyes on him, "No! I will not listen! Not to you!" said Caspian turning around, he had said that louder than he expected he saw Susan flinch, Had he frightened her? No, if she had been frightened she wasn't showing that now.
She didn't like it when Caspian yelled, especially when he was yelling at her, Caspian marched over to her, he pushed his face right in front of hers, it was so close, it was miraculous that they weren't touching, his nose was mere millimeters from her own, Caspian's massively toned torso was towering over Susan, she felt utterly small but held her ground.
"You lied to me!" whispered Caspian dangerously, the words hit Susan in the chest, she felt horrible, like a bug was eating away at her insides but she knew she wasn't in the wrong, and she had the strength to go on, "You never called!" whispered Susan just as dangerously, Caspian turned away from her, "I was gone two years in your times it didn't occur to you once to use the horn and bring me back?" demanded Susan her anger rising.
How could Susan be considering that? How could she not know that Caspian had sat looking at her horn for hours on end, using every once of strength he had not to use it.
"Once? I thought of it every day! That horn was a constant reminder to me that I would never see you again!" yelled Caspian, he paced his tent, Susan stood still, she followed him with her eyes, but other than that did nothing, "When I see you again, after two years I find that every person I trusted lied to me! Lied to me, about you!" said Caspian, he stopped pacing, his scare was burning, he hissed with pain.
Susan looked at Caspian with concern, "Sit down, let me look at that" said Susan walking over to him and pointing a finger quickly at his scare, "No! I'm fine" said Caspian putting his hand out to keep Susan away, "Your not fine! Your not even close! Now go and sit down!" said Susan Looking Caspian in the eyes.
Why did she have to look at him! He was lost in her eyes, they were bright orbs that he got lost in.
Caspian sat down, his wound did hurt him, he wanted help for it but he was reluctant to take it from her because he didn't want to appear as weak as he felt in front of her.
Susan bustled around Caspian's tent grabbing a bowl and some water; she then kneeled down and sat in front of him.
"The Goblin you fought, did you know his blade was poisoned?" asked Susan as she grabbed her small sachet of herbs from her belt and poured them into the bowl, she looked up at Caspian he was looking away from her, Susan was losing her patience, "Look at me!" demanded Susan, Caspian faced her, a sour look on his face, "we only did what we did because we thought it was right, Aslan wanted you to discover us on your own" said Susan adding a small amount of water to her herb mixture so it looked like a thick green paste, Caspian looked away from her, "Any one who lied to you only did it because they cared about you" said Susan looking at Caspian who was refusing to look, she turned back to her bowl, "I care about you" said Susan quietly as she stirred the contents of the bowl looking down.
Caspian whipped his head around to look at Susan, had he just heard right? "What did you say?" asked Caspian in a deathly quite whisper that was full of emotion, "I said" said Susan looking at Caspian, "that I care about you"
There gaze was looked, so many feeling passed through that gaze, just like before.
Caspian was surprised, he had known how Susan felt about him, he thought her feelings mirrored his own, but they had never really voiced how they felt.
Susan looked down into her bowl, Caspian bobbed his head to the side a little, desperate to keep there eye contact a little longer, be he failed, he straightened up on the bed.
Susan had scooped a small amount of her green paste into her hand and began to rub it onto Caspian's wound.
Her fingers traveled so gently over his wound spreading the paste.
It was cold and slimy but it felt nice on Caspian's wound, it felt like his scare was on fire, and the cold paste was taking the hot hurt away.
Just then Caspian seemed to realize that he was lying on a bed, only propped up by his elbow's, and he was shirtless, in front of Susan.
For some reason this thought hadn't occurred to him before when he was arguing with her.
"I'm Sorry, I over reacted" said Caspian looking at Susan, begging her to look up at him.
Susan nodded, she concentrated on spreading the paste.
Then once she was done Susan found herself unable to pull her hand away from Caspian's torso.
She had dreamed of touching him for so long, she didn't want this moment to end.
She began to clear away some of the paste below his scare.
Caspian glanced down at Susan's hand, she was touching him, she didn't need to be, she was rubbing the skin below his wound, she was doing it ever so gentle, her fingers felt so smooth, smoother than any think Caspian had ever felt.
He looked at her, her blue eyes were focusing on her hand, Caspian was focused on her face.
Susan looked up, her hand went still against Caspian's skin but she still didn't take it away, he was staring at her.
He was staring at her with such intensity that Susan thought she might crumble.
Longing and Love was written all over his face, she wanted to say something, but couldn't think how to put what she was feeling in words, so instead she stared back at him.
"King Caspian?" called a voice from outside.
Susan recoiled her hand.
"My Lord! Master Trumpkin request your assistance" said Adam poking his head into Caspian's tent, "I'll be right there" said Caspian waving Adam away impatiently, he looked back to Susan who was packing up her belongings, "how does it feel?" she asked standing up, "Much better" said Caspian standing up and locking eyes with Susan again, "Good" said Susan walking to the tent door, "thank you… Queen Susan" said Caspian looking after Susan as she walked away from him, Susan did a small curtsey, nodding her head as she did so, she then walked out of the tent.
