The large, heavy door hid Caspian from view, and he stayed safely ducked behind it. He made sure he remained shielded by the wood, cautiously avoiding being seen. He watched as Miraz hung the sword on the wall.
Caspians fathers sword.
Miraz had placed it right beside his own portrait as if it were his instead. Caspian thought it should be for him. Caspian IX had received it from his father, and it should have been passed to Caspian X next.
He'd heard the story of how it had been passed down; from father to son. He'd mostly heard Mirazs version, the one where it was unfair. The one where Caspian IX was the favorite, the spoiled child. The most loved. Where Miraz didn't get what his brother did. Where Miraz was always the victim.
Caspian didn't care much about that. He only wished he could have a moment such as that one- one where he had a father. He wanted that sword because it had once belonged to the very person he'd never known but missed the most.
Miraz stepped back, examining the sword. Pride and accomplishment seemed to fill him, spilling into the air around him. Caspian edged away from the door, hurrying down the hall.
He didn't want Uncle Miraz to see him watching. Wanting. Wishing. Miraz wouldn't understand.
Caspian knew his uncle hadn't liked his father, Mirazs brother, but he couldn't comprehend how Uncle Miraz never seemed to care. As if he were actually glad that Caspian IX was gone.
Regardless of whether or not Miraz had really been as ignored and neglected as he claimed, if he had truly felt caught in his older brother's shadow. Even if his brother had really been spoiled and favored, he was Caspians' father.
Miraz refused to fill that role, he may claim to for the public, but he didn't. With Caspians' parents' deaths, his childhood had died. His safety and comfort were never his. He had forever felt alone. As a young child, he didn't know, didn't understand.
Had actually tried.
Now he knew- still didn't understand- but he knew. Miraz had hated Caspians' father, and for some reason, that meant he hated Caspian too.
● ● ●
Caspian waited until he heard Miraz leave, down the hall, down the stairs. He cracked open his bedroom door, checking to be sure before he crept back to his uncle's room. Slipping inside, he closed the door, pausing a moment to be sure he remained unheard.
Silently, he moved a chair over to the wall, the only sound a muffled thud as the chair was returned to the floor. Eyeing the door, Caspian stepped onto the chair, a small squeak echoing into the silence. He froze, listening, hearing only his own fast heartbeat drumming in his ears.
Facing the wall, he looked at the beautiful sword, reaching up. He laid a hand on the hilt, barely even touching it. A ghost of a smile flashed across Caspians face as he imagined his father holding this same sword. His hand resting in the same place that Caspians now lay.
He didn't dare take it down from the wall, but he held onto it as it hung there, thinking of what he wished his memories of his father were. They weren't; they didn't even exist. But if they did, he imagined something warm, a feeling he thought might be safety.
Might be love.
He could just about pretend his father's hand was covering his, showing him how to hold it, helping him if it was too heavy. He sighed, keeping a hand on the sword, relishing the feel of the cold hilt- and the idea of who had held it before him. The idea of his father.
Caspian finally put his hand down, still staring up at the wall. Still a little lost in his daydreams. Shaking his head, he stepped off the chair, quietly moving it back to its spot in the room, barely a sound escaping. He opened the door, easing it closed behind him as he entered the hall.
If he could, he'd come back and look at it again, but he would never take it down. A sword that should have been handed to him by his father now hung on a wall.
If it wasn't handed to him, it wasn't his.
Caspian had no father to hand him the sword, and his uncle had put it on a wall as a trophy.
And on that wall, it would stay.
YOU ARE READING
(Narnia) Broken Pieces -Caspian X- A One Shot Collection
Fanfiction"If only he'd been a little older, then he would have his own memories. But his father and mother were gone, leaving him in a castle, surrounded by people, yet almost entirely alone. Alone without even a memory..." Short one-shots exploring Prince C...
