Lucy in Avalon // Lindensea 3

VIII

It was a long way for Eden to swim, even with her experience. When they could finally stand on the bottom, both girls dragged the boat ashore before collapsing on the nearby grass. Lucy sat there with her long brown curls in rat-tails, her light summer dress feeling as if it weighed a ton when soaked through.

"What kind of bloody idiot goes boating when she can't swim?" Eden demanded in a temper. "You stupid, stupid fool, you might have been drowned."

And then Eden fell to her knees and started sobbing in fatigue.

"Eden, what's wrong?" asked Lucy in surprise.

"I thought ... I thought you were going to die, and it would be all my fault, and I'd always be the girl who murdered Princess Lucy of Lindensea, and your family would demand justice," croaked Eden, wiping her wet eyes with her wet hand, which didn't really help.

"I lost my sandals in the lake," Lucy said apologetically.

Suddenly both girls were  screaming with laughter, falling about helplessly on the grass, and putting their arms around each other to support themselves, having fits of giggles and rolling around on the grass, drumming their heels on the ground in appreciation for how ridiculous the whole situation was.

The laughter did Lucy good, because it helped her cough up the little bit of water she'd swallowed, and then she gave a gurgle and said, "My family wouldn't have really demanded justice. They would have known it was an accident. I'm sorry I can't swim, but there's nowhere to swim in Camden."

"You're on a river," Eden said weakly.

"It's too dirty and muddy to swim in," Lucy explained. "I've been to the seaside on holidays, but always just splashed about in the shallows."

"Oh, I'm exhausted. Let's just lie in the sun," said Eden.

Which they did, all spread out to dry as soon as possible, but still sometimes touching fingers as if to prove they were alive. 

When they had sunned themselves dry, they both discovered they were very hungry, and Lucy became curious as to what was in the picnic basket. It turned out to be cold roast chicken, cold new potatoes, salad, hard boiled eggs, farmhouse cheese, potted shrimps, buttered bread rolls, gingerbread cake, and a flask of lemonade.

"Why does food always taste about a hundred times better outdoors?" Lucy wondered, as she mixed egg into her potatoes and added salad cream to it.

Eden made a noise of agreement through a huge mouthful of bread roll she had stuffed with shrimps, cheese, and watercress.

"What is your boat called?" Lucy asked, trying to decipher the name upside-down.

"Bouddica," replied Eden. "It means victory in the local tongue."

"Is that the Old Language my brother Bernard spoke of?" asked Lucy interestedly.

"It might be the Old Language to you, but around here, it's very much fresh and alive," Eden said. "If you want to get on with the people here, you must learn their language in order to win their trust and friendship."

"Teach me some," begged Lucy. "All I know is that Avalon means apples."

"It's really afallon," Eden said. "Avalon is the Latin version."

"What if I wanted to say lake, or hills?"

"Here in the Lakelands, we call mountains and hills fells," Eden instructed. "But lake is lox and fells are bree."

"So we're by a lox, surrounded by bree," said Lucy. "What is green and blue?"

"The word glas means both, except a very dark blue is glurm," Eden said. "You could say glas lox and glas bree."

"And sky?"

"Neb."

"Boat?"

"Cuch."

"How would I say, dearest Nurse?"

"Cara Essa."

"Love?"

"Carat."

"I love you?"

"Eth caru."

"How do you say, 'You're my darling?'"

"Moi chalon. It means 'my heart', but people use it to mean 'my dear, my sweetheart.'"

Lucy thought it was like having your own private language, and thought perhaps it was the speech of Fairyland. It felt as if you were saying words of magic, had words of power in your mouth.

"What's my name in the Old Language?" asked Lucy. "I'm Lucy of the House of Luna."

"Lugha Loyr," answered Eden. "It translates to 'light of the moon'. But you know, Lucy, these long dresses we're wearing almost took our lives when it was girl overboard. What do you say to dressing like bandits when we go out sailing?"

Notes

Potted shrimps and gingerbread cake are specialties of the Lake District in our world too.

Boudicca or Boadicea, the famous ancient British queen who fought against the Romans and devastated London. Her name (title?) is a feminine form of the Brittonic word for "victory".