Chapter 8

The entire time that I walked away from Edmund and his sword, I could feel his eyes on me. My heart was still pounding like a jackhammer. Yeah, I needed to get away for a bit. I had to keep my cool.

Except, leaving Edmund nearly got me KILLED.

Just kidding. But Eustace did shove me out of his way and almost off of the damn boat while running away from Reep.

"Hey watch it!" I said, gripping the railing, looking down at the water. If he had shoved any harder I would have flipped over the railing.

Scowling, I followed the two, wondering what Eustace had done this time.

Reep, for some reason, had taken it upon himself to try and duel with Eustace. When Reep cut through Eustace's shirt and plucked out an orange, throwing it at Drinian who caught it in an impressive catch I might add, I figured out what happened.

Lucy came up behind me. "What's going on?"
"You're adorable cousin is a food thief, that's what."

Then, Eustace tried to fight back.

My jaw dropped as he pitifully swung his weapon back at Reep.

"Who in their right mind would give him a sword? For heaven's sake!"

Lucy didn't answer me, she just kept her eyes on her cousin.

We watched the duel intensely. The entire time, Reep was actually instructing him on how to fight properly. I made a few mental notes so that I wouldn't seem totally defenseless when Edmund gave me my lesson tonight, though I'm sure that I still would be.

Watching Eustace attempting to fight Reep made me laugh so hard I nearly cried. He was missing Reep completely.

At one point, Reep wobbled and appeared to have fallen off the ship.

Of course, Eustace fell for it and peered over the edge while Reep snuck up behind him, turned him and give him a good, hard shove.

"And that is THAT!" he declared. Eustace slammed into a tall basket and knocked it over, causing the basket to shriek.

Wait, what?

Lucy and I exchanged looks and walked forward slowly.

A small child-sized hand stuck out.

"Look," Lucy said, watching as the child emerged from the basket.

I felt my eyes widen. It was the little girl whose mom had been kidnapped and father had come with us here.

Sure enough, her father pushed through the crowd with an incredulous look on his face. "Gael? What are you doing here?"

Gael stood up slowly and looked back at her father, with a sad look on her face. My eyes darted back and forth between the two, trying to figure out what they were both thinking.

Finally her father reached for her. "Here," he said gently, folding her into a small hug.

The thudding of a pair of boots made their way towards us. Drinian, who was still holding that damn orange.

The father and daughter watched him, awaiting his response. Would he kick them off? Drinian didn't seem to be that mean, but I couldn't be sure.

"Looks like we have an extra crew member," he commented. A relieved smile spread across the fathers face as Drinian offered the orange to the little girl, who took it shyly.

Lucy left my side and walked up to the little girl.

"Welcome aboard," Lucy told her in a very kind, queen-like way.

"Your Majesty," Gael said, respectfully awed.

"Call me Lucy," she said, smiling.

"Come on," she said. Lucy put an arm around her and began to lead her away.

I almost followed, but decided to go find Caspian and find out when we'd arrive at our next destination instead.

I found Caspian and Edmund talking.

"Hello, dearies," I greeted them. They both stopped talking abruptly.

"Hello, Rose," Caspian greeted me. "What can I do for you?"

"When are we going to get to wherever it is we're going, do you think?" I questioned, darting my eyes back and forth between the two.

"Tonight," Edmund answered, giving me a pointed look.

Well there goes my sword lessons.

I smiled and nodded. "Well that's good."

"Yes," Caspian agreed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go oversee preparations."

He walked away, leaving Edmund and I alone.

"There goes that plan," I said with a sigh. "But it's okay, I lived once. There's a good chance it can happen again as long as I don't do anything stupid."

He stared at me. "Well . . . we all know that's not going to happen."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

He grinned. "I'm just kidding. I can still teach you, you know."

I looked at him doubtfully. "How? I mean we're on some big mission to save the world and what not."

"We're most likely going to make camp there for the night before anything. We can sneak away."

I raised my eyebrows. "Sneak away? It's not like we're doing anything bad. I mean, you're just teaching me to fight . . ." I trailed off when I saw him smirking.

"The crew likes to talk, Rose," he said. "And I'm a king."

I rolled my eyes. "Gotcha. Well that's fine then, your royal Highness. I'll be bad to protect your reputation." I patted his shoulder and walked away, shaking my head, my cheeks burning.

Especially when I heard Edmund call to me after a moment of hesitation, "Wait, hold on! How bad?"

I chose to ignore him. No use in making any promises I may or may not keep, right?

AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I should be able to update again tomorrow. If not, then definitely on Monday. Tell me what you think so far. If you have any suggestions you have for upcoming chapters go for it and tell me! I love feedback.