The King and the Girl

Chapter 4

You heard footsteps behind you as you watched the trees, realizing that they were actually dancing, not just blowing in the wind. A gust of wind filled with flowers made the image of a woman who smiled and waved at you from the ground. You smiled and waved back shyly before you heard a familiar voice clear their throat.

"____?" You turned to find a worried Caspian behind you.

"I'm sorry I just..." You felt yourself playing with a loose curl that had fallen in your face during the run to wherever you were. "I don't understand." You said to him, still twisting the curl in front of you.

You heard him sigh and step closer to you, wrapping a cloak around your shoulders that was the same color and material as the dress you were wearing. You thanked him with a small smile as he wrapped you in a comforting hug.

"Neither do I..." He looked out over the trees and took a deep breath as you enjoyed the warmth his arms brought to you. He pulled back and placed his hands just over your elbows before getting you to look into his dark eyes. "But we will. We will figure this out together, and I will not allow any harm to come to you, ____"

Caspian led you back toward the castle with your arms looked through his. You listened to him tell you that he had no idea who the woman in the painting was, only that it was a gift to the royal family in the Beginning. You stopped walking and looked up a Caspian, releasing yourself from his arms.

"Caspian?"

"Yes?"

"What am I supposed to do?" You looked up at the young king, and admitted to yourself that you didn't mind him protecting you until the day you died, as long as he continued to bring you hope that you could be more than you were before.

"I believe I can answer that, Dear One." You suddenly heard Aslan's voice behind you. You turned and immediately felt as though everything would be okay. "You are supposed to find who you were in your past life, so that you may discover your place in the world again."

You looked at the glorious lion and felt confused and suddenly a little angry. "What the heck is that supposed to mean? Are you saying that the painting is... Is me? In another life? How is this possible?"

Aslan gave you an amused smile as he began to walk, with you and Caspian following alongside him. "You were familiar to me, so I took a journey and consulted some old friends. In your past life, you and I were very dear to one another. I thought that I might never see your spirit again. Until Caspian found you in the wood." He seemed to be leading you back to the library as he talked.

"Caspian has told you about the Great Kings and Queens of Old?" You nodded, hoping he would continue. He opened the doors to the library and walked slowly as he finished his speech. "Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy were able to help me confront the White Witch many years ago. But she and I were the only ones that knew of your existence. You see, ____, you were the daughter of the White Witch."

Aslan stopped walking and motioned his nose up toward the painting, and you followed his motion to look up at the painting again. Less afraid now that you knew Aslan knew more than anyone else about who this White Witch's daughter really was. Who you really were.

"But Aslan, why would you give the royal family the portrait of the White Witch's daughter if no one knew who she was?" You asked, looking over at him.

"It was foretold long ago of what great things you would do after your mother was defeated." A look of sadness crossed over his eyes as he met your gaze. "When she gave me the painting, it was after she had made you disappear. I thought for sure that she had killed you." He looked back up at the painting and you saw a glimmer of hope return to his eyes. "I was wrong. After I gave the painting to the Royal Family, they forgot about us. I found your body a few days later. Your mother placed a spell over you. You would sleep in the field hidden with magic until your natural life-span would have ended if you were human. Your body disappeared on that day, and I had no idea that you would be reborn until I had met you again."

You felt the slight nudge of the lion's face as he nuzzled against your hand, you obliged and gave him a small hug. "Thank you, Aslan."

"Dear One, I'm afraid I must see to other matters. Caspian will look after you as you make your way on this journey."

You looked at him feeling as though you were saying good bye to the only person who knew more about you than even you did.

_______________________________________________

You sat next to Caspian at his rather large table and picked at your food for a while before he finally broke the silence.

"____?" You looked up at him politely smiling at him.

"Yes?"

"Do you miss it?" he asked setting down his goblet of wine. "Your home?"

You sighed as you considered what he was asking you.

"No, I don't actually think that I do... In my world, not many would come near me, let alone try to know me... I was always too shy to try and find the words that fit with the people around me. It's not like that here, I find myself talking to nearly everyone I've encountered as if I've known them for years, and they actually listen." You smiled at your own answer. "My mother in my world has been gone for a long time, so I live alone. My only friend outside of my books is a squirrel. And animals don't speak in my world, though that's not exactly a friend, I suppose..." You wandered off in your own thoughts as you reached for your own goblet of wine.

Reepicheep popped out of the large cheese that was adorned on his plate, surprising you considering he had been in there for a while without a word. "Is that a doubt about a small creature's friendship?" he asked, pulling himself to stand on top of the cheese so that you could completely see him. You let out a small giggle as you set down the wine and smiled at him.

"I'm sorry, Reep, but Happy doesn't talk back, I think the only reason he even began to approach me was because I give him food every morning."

He walked across the table to stand in front of your plate. "____, there are very few things in this world that are hard to earn, but once you have them, they're impossible to lose. The trust of an animal is one of those things. I should know." he waved his small arms as if to point to himself. "It takes a bit more than a piece of bread to win me over."

Caspian chuckled, "Reep, I think that bringing you into a fight is all that it takes to earn your trust."

The little mouse folded his arms and quickly retreated back into his cheese, mumbling something. You giggled a bit and Caspian chuckled before smiling over at you.

"So then, tell me, what is your favorite story?" Caspian leaned forward onto his elbows, interested and attentive as you both began to eat again.

"Well," you felt a slight blush as you remembered the story that you read more than any other in your life. "It's actually a children's story, but I find it has great lessons for life hidden within its lines. It's about a prince, who was cursed into a beast. He locks himself away, with no hope on how to break it, until a girl finds him. They become friends and teach each other what they know, until they fall in love only to realize that the curse was a lesson to the prince. That he was more than a prince, and that he was deserving of his own true love in his own way."

You looked over to find Caspian leaning on one of his hands, listening to your every word intently, and you felt more heat rising into your cheeks as you pulled your napkin up to hide the lower half of your face.

"Is there something on my face?" you asked him, suddenly embarrassed.

"No!" Caspian then turned a light shade of pink as he cleared his throat and pointed his attention back to his plate. "No, no, nothing like that. I just never heard anyone speak about a story so endearingly before..." He smiled "Except for me of course, but not many people listen to a king telling stories unless it is on a battlefield."

You laid your napkin back on the table, nodding, feeling the blush in your cheeks fading. "Well, that's a great shame then." You smiled and looked over at him, still smiling.

"Besides, ____, that's one of my favorite stories too." You bit your lip and the two of you finished dinner discussing your similar interests in stories before it was time for bed.