Chapter 9
By evening, we were approaching a mysterious looking island. It was nothing but forest from what I could see. After overhearing a conversation, I knew Caspian was wary about landing, which made me feel slightly worried. What if it was a trap? We were looking for one of the missing lords but he was obviously missing for a reason and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out what that reason was. But Edmund seemed determined to go, and unfortunately I seemed to have a knack for sticking by his side.
Damn him.I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Lucy and Gael. Gael was adorable and very shy. Lu and I did our best to make her feel at home. It worked, I think. But she seemed to only want to be with her dad, which was natural. I learned his name was Rhince.
We reached the shore of the island around eight '0' clock. We set up our camp and built a fire, which we all gathered around and ate a small meal. I sat next to Tavros and chatted with him. As far as Minotaurs go, he was pretty cool. Pretty soon Reep joined us. Eustace was sitting by himself, which made me feel guilty. I asked him if he wanted to sit with us and I got a very snarky response.
The little punk.
When it was time for bed, we put out the fire and set up our sleeping areas. I set up my blanket by Lucy and laid down.
After about ten minutes, the night was filled with the sound of snores and crickets. I couldn't tell if everyone was asleep yet though, so I laid still. After about another fifteen minutes, I still wasn't sure.
Then a hand went over my mouth. My eyes flew open and I saw Edmund crouching over me, with his finger pressed to his lip to indicate me to be quiet.
I shot him a look of annoyance, showing him that he had scared me to death. He grinned back and nodded his head for me to follow. I slowly got up, looking around me. Sure enough, everyone was fast asleep. Eustace was snoring as loud as the rest of them, his mouth hanging wide open. Oh God he did look like a little piggy.
I bit my lip to keep from snickering. I could tell Edmund was having trouble keeping a straight face too. He grabbed my hand and we practically ran to get out of there before we laughed out loud and woke everyone up.
Once we were far away enough, we couldn't stop laughing.
"Did you see his mouth hanging open?" I said, cracking up.
He nodded, laughing so hard he could barely speak. "And the way he was laying?"
I couldn't even respond. We probably spent a good five minutes laughing before we calmed down.
"Okay," he finally said. "Okay, let's start practicing."
"Alright," I agreed.
He took out a sword from his sheath and handed it to me before pulling out his own.
"Okay," he said. "First off, you're holding it all wrong."
I made a face. "We haven't even started and I'm doing something wrong."
He came over and positioned my hands on it correctly. "There you go."
My fingers tingled where he touched. Maybe I should have asked Reep for help. Edmund was making my heart race so fast I was pretty sure I'd pass out.
Keeping my eyes downcast, I said, "Now what?"
He stepped back. "Now we'll see what you can do."
Before I could so much as blink, he began swinging at me.
"Shit!" I jumped back a few steps. "What the hell?"
"Did you think I was going to go easy on you or something?" he asked me, not once pausing in his attacks.
"I hoped," I admitted, blocking his swing with my sword.
"There you go," he said approvingly.
We kept at it for an hour. He disarmed five times. Reading a lot of books and watching movies did help me some, but I certainly was no swordswoman. I was getting better but it was a slow process.
After he disarmed me a sixth time, we took our positions again. Instead of running at each other like we'd been doing, we both walked in a slow circle, each of us waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
He was grinning at me like a villain in a movie.
"Are you sure you don't want to quite, Rosie?" he asked cockily.
"Dream on," I replied, keeping my eyes fixed on him
Suddenly he lunged. In reflex, I stopped him with my blade. I was pushing against his blade with my own. I had a plan forming in my head. It was daring, but I was getting desperate to win at least once. He was much stronger and I couldn't hold him off for much longer.
So I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his. I don't think anything has ever surprised him more in his life, not even stumbling upon Narnia in wardrobe.
His grip on his sword loosened immediately, so despite every instinct in my brain telling me that I should keep kissing him, I knocked the sword from his hands and pointed my own at his chest.
"Finally!" I cried, pulling away and jumping up and down.
"You cheated!" Edmund insisted, still looking astonished.
I shrugged and said, "I found a weapon and used it against you, nothing wrong with that, is there?"
He stared at me, mouth slightly agape.
I walked over to him and used my hand to close it, trying not to giggle excitedly like a little girl.
"So you kiss me for two seconds and win," he said, still trying to grasp what I did.
I nodded. "Yup. Although I feel like that'll only work on you." I gave him a sly smile and started to turn around to walk back to starting position when he grabbed my arm and swung me back to him.
I stared at him, wide-eyed.
"You're such a tease," he said, almost exasperated.
"Just a little," I admitted.
Then we were kissing. At first, it was soft and sweet. Then it grew deeper and more passionate. His arms went around my waist and I locked my fingers in his hair. I felt like I was drowning and I loved every second of it. His lips were fierce yet gentle against mine. I felt his tongue traced my lips.
"What the hell is going on?!"
We jumped apart and looked to see Caspian, looking seriously pissed.
"I woke up and you both were gone!" he said furiously. "I've been looking for you for a half hour!"
I tried to explain. "Look, he was just teaching me to sword fight."
"Yes that's exactly what it looked like," Caspian said sarcastically.
Edmund was silent, which wasn't good. I could practically feel his anger rising.
Caspian rubbed his temples. "In case you haven't realized, we are on unfamiliar territory. I don't care what you do, just not in the middle of the night and not when at any moment you could be killed!"
"So you think I couldn't have defended us?" Edmund snapped, walking forward so that he was in front of Caspian.
"You don't know if you could have or not," he argued back. "People have gone missing, do you really think they just went off for a holiday?"
"Knock it off, both of you!" I yelled. "Before you annoy whatever you think is out there and it kills you to shut you up!"
They stopped, but glowered at each other.
"We made a mistake," I said, coming up to Edmund and taking his hand. "It was dumb and it won't happen again."
"You got lucky this time," Caspian said, his voice low.
The temptation to say hell yeah we did was overpowering, but I decided now wasn't the best time.
"Let's just go back to camp," he said with a sigh. "Come on."
You'd think that'd be the end of it, but no. They argued the whole way back. I learned that putting two kings together on an adventure to save the world didn't exactly mix well.
When we made it back to camp, they had calmed down. At least Caspian had, but I could tell Edmund was still angry.
Each man went to his spot and laid down without a word. I hesitated before grabbing my blanket that was by Lucy and walking over and lying next to Edmund, pulling the blanket over us both. He put an arm around me and pulled me close, our foreheads touching. He smiled softly.
"Are you okay?" I whispered.
He had a reluctant look on his face when he said, "Yeah, I know he's right."
I nodded and snuggled my head into the crook of his neck.
"You're my favorite king," I said softly.
I barely felt him kiss my head before I slipped off into a deep comfortable sleep.
