Chapter 17.
I slept in late the next morning. What can I say? Last night left me really tired. After all, I did face what I assume was probably only phase one of the evil thingy. I didn't even stir when Edmund got up, which personally I found impressive since we were on a hammock. I would have slept in even later most likely, but Lucy and Gael woke me up with the news we'd been awaiting for what seemed forever.
"We found land!" a voice yelled in my year excitedly. Groggily, I opened my eyes to see the two girls standing over me, beaming. Lucy had been the one to oh so kindly awaken me.
"Why did you sleep in King Edmund's hammock, Rosie?" Gael asked me, confused. She had heard Edmund call me that when he was teasing me before, and now that's all she called me. I didn't mind, exactly. It was cute—coming from her.
"Did he have to sleep on the floor?" she asked curiously.
"Uhh not exactly, sweetheart," I said, flickering my eyes to Lucy desperately.
Lucy, bless her heart, cut in. "Gael, why don't we take Rose to get dressed and then we'll go on deck with your dad until we arrive?"
"Okay," she agreed, happily.
I shot Lucy a grateful look and quickly got up. Gael, sweet, innocent Gael, automatically took my hand.
Smiling, I gave her hand a gentle squeeze and we walked to our room. I cleaned up and dressed in a light purple, almost lavender, blouse with a tight black vest that I personally would consider to be a corset, tight black pants and the usual black boots. Not only were these boots stylish, but also amazing for kicking ass.
. . . Plus they were the only pair of shoes they had left for me.
Any who, when I was done, we went on deck and I took off running to the front of the boat to see the land for myself. Sure enough, in the distance, was an island.
"Finally!" I shouted, pumping my fists into the air with joy.
"I know," a voice agreed. "I thought you were going to sleep all day." I grinned as Reep climbed up onto the railing in front of me.
I chuckled. "Good morning to you too, Reepicheep. Do you know when are we going to get there?"
"Oh, probably an hour or so."
Sure enough, about an hour later, we were in rowboats going to the island. I sat in the front with Lucy as we watched the men row. Eustace, apparently not being a man, was curled up in the back.
"I doubt the lords stopped here, my liege," Reep called over to Caspian from the other rowboat. The adorable little guy got to stand on the very front of the boat. "There's no sign of anything living."
"Right," Caspian agreed, though I knew that wouldn't stop us from looking. "Once we're ashore take your men and search for food and water. The four of us will look for clues."
I beamed. Hell yes, I got to do the fun stuff with the royals! Unless the fourth was Eustace, but somehow I highly doubted it.
"Hang on," Eustace cut in from the back, "you mean the five of us."
In unison, we all turned to stare at him, trying to see if he was joking or not. Sadly, he wasn't. I couldn't help but smirk at him from my perch up front. Poor Eustace was a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.
"No, dear, I'm pretty sure he meant the FOUR of us," I said, grinning as I did a dramatic hair flip to emphasize the fact that they considered me their number four. "Sorry, hon. Maybe next time."
"They're only taking you because you're sleeping with who they call their 'king'," he shot back angrily. "That's the only reason you're considered special here."
Everyone went silent. I could almost hear the sound of jaws hitting the ground and eyes popping out of heads. Lucy and Edmund's eyes both flashed to me, silently pleading with me not to do anything stupid.
"Now, Rose," Caspian said nervously. "Don't do anything rash, okay?"
I suppose the way I acted next might be considered "rash".
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled, attempting to lunge at Eustace. Lucy tried to restrain me, but failed. It took Caspian, Edmund, and another crew man to keep me from strangling the little monster. "YOU ARE SOO GONNA GET YOURS ONE DAY!"
Eustace, looking terrified, scrambling back as far as the rowboat would allow him. The entire boat was in utter chaos, rocking around as everyone scrambled to either keep me back or keep from flipping over. I hope the crew on the other boat at least found us comical because laughter was the farthest thing from my mind at the moment.
"Let it go, Rose," Caspian instructed me with calmness only a king could have in a situation like this. "Just let it go."
"Eustace, apologize, NOW!" I'm sure Edmund sounded scary, but I barely registered it. I was too busy plotting.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry!" Eustace said hurriedly, looking at me like I'd escaped from the depths of his own personal Hell. I bet he saw me last night in a hallucination trying to teach him manners or something.
"There," Edmund said trying to sound reassuring. "You see? He apologized."
"He's only sorry because he knows I can beat him to next week and back!" I said furiously.
"Not true!" Eustace protested, his voice cracking. Little British brat.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "One of these days Eustace, I swear . . ." I relaxed and everyone who had hold of me, seemingly reassured that I wasn't going to attempt murder at the moment, let me go. I pulled away from them and looked around to address everyone. "And we haven't 'slept' together, we've just slept together, but not like that—I mean—we—oh for the love of all that is good and pure in this forsaken universe, you know what I mean!"
Cheeks flaming, I sat back down. Everyone, and I mean from both boats, continued to stare at me. Half of them looked slightly sorry for me, the other half looked concerned for their own safety. Which was pretty reasonable—one wrong look and I'd be ready to snap a neck or something.
"Are we going or not?" I snapped. "We have a lord to find and a world to save!" Immediately, everyone rushed to start rowing again.
"At least you got your temper back," Edmund commented casually. "Even the mist can't take that away, no matter how much was ask."
I shot him an annoyed look, though a smile crept up on my face. He grinned, looking triumphant that he'd gotten a smile out of me.
Eustace looked slightly guilty, but I honestly didn't give two shits.
If the evil green mist doesn't knock some sense into this kid then I sure as hell will.
AN: Sorry everyone, it's a really short chapter. I probably won't be able to update till Monday, maybe. I don't know—we'll see. By the way . . . I saw the movie "We're the Millers" and I was geeking out because our very own Eustace Scrubbs (known to "normal people" as "actor" Will Poulter) was a main character (he's like, nineteen or eighteen now which is really, really weird). Well, I absolutely love Eustace so of course I got all excited but then there's this one part where he gets bit by a highly poisonous spider in the balls and IT FREAKING SHOWED IT FOR LIKE FOUR WHOLE SECONDS! GUYS, I SAW EUSTACE'S PENIS AND I CAN'T EVER LOOK AT HIM THE SAME WAY WITHOUT DYING A LITTLE INSIDE! MY WORLD HAS SHATTERED! ...So yeah, review and what not…meanwhile, I'll be seeking a therapist.
