"Elizabeth."
Elizabeth turned and Caspian tossed her a sword. She flinched as she caught it in her hand.
"Everyone in Narnia needs to learn proper swordsmanship. And after what we faced on the last island, I think it's high time someone taught you."
"Oh, no, Your Majesty," Elizabeth laughed nervously. "I…I can't possibly…"
"The only person stopping you is yourself. Now block."
Caspian lunged towards her with his own sword, and Elizabeth quickly threw her sword in front of her face to block the blow. Various crew members circled around them, watching Caspian teach Elizabeth how to swordfight.
"Point your sword up," Caspian instructed. "Now thrust with your right foot."
Elizabeth did as she was told, and Caspian proceeded to block the blow. For several hours with few breaks in between, Caspian taught Elizabeth how to properly use a sword. She picked up the skill really fast for someone who had never even looked at a sword before.
Finally, Caspian stopped training for the day. "Very good, Elizabeth. You have some serious potential."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Caspian smiled warmly at her. "Caspian."
Elizabeth smiled back as she blushed. Lucy smirked. The two of them really had some chemistry going on.
As the days passed, Caspian continued to teach Elizabeth how to swordfight while Edmund continued teaching Eva. When he wasn't teaching his girlfriend swordfighting, he was rubbing off the barnacles on the sword, sharpening it for use once more.
"It's going to be magnificent," Reepicheep said as he watched Edmund restore the sword to its former glory. "Do they come in a smaller size?"
Eva smiled at her mouse friend. "If it did, you would be the first to receive it."
Eustace's attitude had not improved, and he spent a lot of his time either complaining or writing in his journal…where he wrote out more complaints.
Elizabeth and Caspian were about to start training again when Eustace came running onto the deck from below holding a butcher's knife. He ended up bumping into Tavros.
"Watch it," he growled.
"Sorry," Eustace stammered. He continued running across the deck while Reepicheep scampered after him.
"Trying to run away? We're on a boat, you know." He swung on a rope and landed in front of Eustace.
"Look, can't we just discuss this?"
Reepicheep cut Eustace's shirt. "That was for stealing." He then poked his sword into an orange hidden in his shirt. That was why the boy had been running across the deck in a panic. He had been trying to steal some food.
Eva rolled her eyes. They were all hungry. He would just have to get over it. Though by the looks of it, Reepicheep must've caught him and wasn't about to let that go unpunished.
"That was for lying." Reepicheep then hit Eustace's face with the orange. "And that was for good measure." When he noticed Eustace's hand with the butcher knife shaking with anger, he laughed as Eustace started trying to stab him. "That's the spirit! We have ourselves a duel! Catch."
He tossed the orange to Drinian who caught it with ease.
Eva leaned over to Edmund. "This should be interesting."
"Now, come on," Reepicheep laughed. "Take your best shot."
Eustace lunged at Reepicheep with his knife several times, but each time Reepicheep managed to evade his movements.
"Is that it? Come on, boy! Focus! Focus! Yes! Stop flapping your wings like a drunken pelican! Poise! Keep your blade up. Up! Up! That's it!"
Eustace lunged again, trying to follow Reepicheep's instructions. Reepicheep scampered across the ship on the ropes and the railing. Eustace lunged, but the knife got stuck in the wood as Reepicheep flipped over him and landed on a barrel.
"Yoo-hoo! Over here!" Eustace came after him. "Now, lunge with your foot." He scampered down to Eustace's feet. "Not your left, your right! Got it? Come on. Be nimble. Be nimble! It's a dance, boy, a dance. Come on now. Again, and again. That's right, that's right."
Eustace lunged again, and Reepicheep began to cheer his praises as Eustace finally got it right. Then Reepicheep fell off the railing of the ship. Eustace panicked and looked over the side. Reepicheep then appeared on the rope above him and tapped him on his left shoulder with his tail. Eustace turned at his touch.
"And that is that!" he said as he shoved Eustace onto the deck where he knocked over a crate.
Everyone applauded the duel between Eustace and Reepicheep.
"Look!" Lucy said.
Out from the crate crawled little Gael from the Lone Islands, the daughter of Rhince, the man who had joined them.
"Gael?" Rhince said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Eva wondered how on earth that small child managed to remain undetected for so long. After all, it had been several days since they left the Lone Islands.
Rhince went over and hugged his daughter tightly.
Drinian approached the small girl. "Looks like we have an extra crew member." He smiled and handed her the orange Eustace had tried to steal. Gael shyly took it from him.
Lucy went over to Gael. "Welcome aboard," she smiled.
"Your Majesty," Gael said with a polite curtsy.
"Call me Lucy. Come on." Lucy took Gael to show her where she could stay while aboard the Dawn Treader.
"Come on, look lively!" Drinian ordered. "Back to work!"
Eustace picked up the butcher knife on the deck.
"Good match," Reepicheep commented. "I'll make a swordsman of you yet."
Eustace smiled at first, and then said shortly, "Yes, well, if the playing field were a little more even, it would've been an entirely different result."
Reepicheep chuckled. "Indeed."
Eva approached the mouse. "I don't know what you did, but I think that's the first time I've ever seen him really smile."
"He's just a boy like any other. They're all searching for acceptance."
"He'd be accepted by a lot more people if he wasn't so awful. Have you seen the way he treats Elizabeth?"
"Some people feel more important by belittling others they believe to be lower than them. It's how they compensate for feeling ignored or mistreated."
"You know…come to think of it, from what I've seen at his house, Elizabeth is really the only one who pays any attention to him. His mother and father hardly ever speak to him. In fact…I don't really think he has any friends at all. Which isn't hard to believe, given his attitude, but…even still, I think you're right. He wants acceptance…and you've started to give him that."
"You see, Lady Eva, there's more to people than what they initially let on. He may be rude to Elizabeth, but that's probably because he doesn't know how to act any other way since he hasn't had much other contact with someone else."
"Elizabeth has really put up with him a lot. And yet…she's always so nice to him even when he is completely rude to her."
"Perhaps she understands his need for human contact."
"Perhaps. I think there's more to it than that, though."