My King // Peter Pevensie

TWO

My eyes flew open. It was dim in the room, and the wooden ceiling weaved and was lined with beaded designs. I tried to remember what had happened. We were running. The woods. We fell. The figures. The horn. Suddenly it all came back to me and I scrambled for my sword. It was gone. I searched for Caspian and saw him lying in a bed next to mine. I got up, only to be met with a horrible aching pain in the back of my head. I must have fallen very hard.

I crept over to Caspian and shook him awake. I could now hear voices outside our room. Caspian woke, wincing in pain noting his obvious head injury. He saw me and opened his mouth to speak but I put a silencing finger to my lips. He nodded and we tip-toed over to the opening where the voices were coming from.

"This bread is so stale." a deep, grumpy voice said.

"I'll just get them some soup then." said a very calm male voice. "They should be coming around soon."

"Yeah?" the other man asked. "Well, I don't think I hit the boy hard enough."

"Nikabrik, they are just kids!"

"They are Telmarines, not some lost puppies! You said you were gonna get rid of them!"

Caspian and I exchanged nervous glances as we peeked around the corner. "No, I said I would take care of them." said the badger. Badger? It's talking. "We can't kill them now. We just bandaged the boy's head. It would be like murdering a guest."

"Oh? And how do you think they are treating their guests?" Nikabrik questioned.

I looked at Caspian. I could see what he was planning. I shook my head to tell him that it was not a good idea. "Trumpkin knew what he was doing. It's not their fault." I tried to hold onto my brother's sleeve, but he shot out from the corner anyway.

He bolted towards the door but was stopped as Nikabrik drew his sword. Caspian grabbed the steel poker from the fireplace and began to block the slashes of the sword. I searched rapidly from my sword and spotted it leaning on the wall. I lunged for it and began to draw it before the badger spoke up.

"Stop it! No!"

Nikabrik stopped and glared at both me and my brother. "I told you we should have killed them when we had the chance."

"You know why we can't."

"If we're taking a vote," Caspian spoke up. "I'm with him." he said, nodding to the badger.

"Well we can't just let them go! They've seen us!" he started at Caspian again and I fully drew my sword.

"That's enough, Nikabrik!" the badger warned. "Do I have to sit on your head again?" Nikabrik scowled. The badger turned to Caspian. "And you," he leaned down to pick up the bowl of soup that was now spilled on the carpet. "Look what you made me do." I eyed Caspian with a subtle smirk, internally laughing at the fact that he just got scolded by a badger. "I spent half a morning on that soup."

Caspian looked around at them. "W-what are you?"

"Ha it's funny you should ask that. You'd think people would know a badger when they saw one."

"No, he meant, you are Narnians." I said curiously. "You're supposed to be extinct."

Nikabrik scoffed. "Sorry to disappoint you." I glared at his remark.

The badger came back with two more steaming bowls of soup. "Here you go." He set them on the little table. "Still hot."

"Since when did we open a boarding house for Telmarine soldiers?" Nikabrik pushed back. I would be mad but was shocked, and perhaps a bit proud, that he thought I was a soldier.

"We are not soldiers." Caspian spoke up, looking back at me. "I am Prince Caspian. The tenth. This is my sister, Princess Camila."

"What are you doing here?"

Caspian and I gave each other sorry looks. "Running away." I said, looking to the floor.

"My uncle has always wanted my throne." Caspian put back the poker. "I suppose we have only lived this long because he did not have an heir of his own." I put a hand on my brother's shoulder.

"Oh, that changes things." the badger lowered his head. He was clearly the sympathetic one.

"Yeah. It means we don't have to kill you ourselves." I should have expected the dwarf to make another snarky remark.

Caspian straightened. "You are right." he headed to his things, and I followed.

"Where are you going?"

"Our uncle will not stop until we are dead." I said, putting on my things.

"But, you can't leave! You are meant to save us." My brother and I stopped to look at the badger. "Don't you know what this is?" he reached across the table at an item. It was white and intricate. I swore I had seen it before. It was a horn, the one Caspian blew. Then it came back to me. High Queen Susan's horn.