Silver and Gold

brothers thoughts

Peters eyes darted quickly as he flicked through the pages of one of the many narnian history books. The library was huge and peter had spent hours looking for one to distract himself with. He did need to look up a few battle terms, as he still didn't understand all of them.

But unfortunately, his mind kept wandering back to his brother...and their argument. Peter knew how snappy and stubborn he sometimes got. But Edmund was the same sometimes.

'I better check on him...' the thought spiralled his mind for a good few minutes, before peter finally rose from his seat. He slammed the book shut before placing it back on the right shelf. He then made his way from the library and into the throne room, to see if anyone had seen Edmund.

Peter had been panicking about his brothers whereabouts. But he feared it was just paranoia and didn't want to alarm anyone in the castle unless he was certain Edmund was in actual danger.

But the sigh of relief that escaped peters lips when he saw Edmund walk into the throne room was unmissable. Walking quickly, peter approached him.

"Ed...I'm, I'm so sorry about earlier..." peter started, stuttering slightly as he tried to find the right words.

"It's okay, Pete" Edmund replied with a reassuring smile.

Peter wasn't sure if he believed him, so he just gave his brother a certain look.

"I mean it, peter. I'm fine" Edmund said as he forced an even wider smile.

"Oh, good" peter said before pulling him into a tight hug.

Edmund hated not being able to tell his brother about the wolves plan...but it's not like he had a choice. He was keeping Vardans secret to protect his family. It had to be done. He was doing the right thing. Or was he?

The debating thoughts faded away as Lucy approached them.
"Supper is ready. Me and Susan went to the kitchens and made some soup" Lucy informed them with a sincere smile.

"Thank you, Lucy" peter replied, not taking his eyes off Edmund.

"Yes, thanks Lu" Edmund chimed in.

"It's tomato soup. Your favourite" she added with a rather achieved impression on her face.

"Even better!" Edmund exclaimed with a chuckle. And with that, he followed Lucy into the kitchens.

Peter followed behind them, lagging slightly as he was deep in thought.

Something was off. Peter had become rather talented at observing...and he could tell Edmund was acting different. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

But once again, peter seemed to shake it off as paranoia. He didn't want to stress Edmund out anymore than he already was, and accusing him of acting different would only make Edmund either angry or insecure.

So peter kept his thoughts to himself, and went to have supper with the rest of the family.

The rest of the night was quite a blur for Edmund. Half the time he acted completely normal as he ate supper and went up to bed, but he would have sudden moments where he would remember the deal he made with the wolf. It made guilt burn up inside him. Sometimes it felt like his stomach was on fire from the lying.

'No...it's not lying. You are simply protecting your family' Edmund reminded himself as he entered his bedroom.

He had to keep reassuring himself of this, because if he didn't, he knew the guilt would overwhelm him and he'd crack.

Let's just say...Edmund had far from a good nights sleep. Because everytime he closed his eyes, all he could see was everyone calling him a traitor. Because that's exactly what he felt like.