𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄, caspian x ✓

five.

05

THE ROYAL CELEBRATION

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Kathryn had never thought she would be able to wear that blue tunic that she had hidden underneath all the other clothes in her trunk. She had paired it with a pair of Caspian's old black trousers, they were still baggy around her thighs but she didn't mind. Carver had braided her hair, finally putting the use the skill that his sisters had taught him before he had disappeared. Kathryn had never learned how to braid her hair, she had always left it to her own sister to do. 

Some of her fondest memories were of her sister braiding her hair, sometimes she would sing too. Arcelia was a true beauty with red hair down to her waist and big brown eyes which she inherited from her mother, Larcella. Kathryn, on the other hand, had inherited her deep blue eyes and long black hair from her own mother. Whilst Arcelia and Kathryn couldn't look anymore different, it never stopped Larcella raising her as her own. 

"There," Carver smiled, watching as Kathryn admired her hair in the mirror of her chambers. "You look pretty."

Kathryn glared at him, the corners of her mouth twitching when he looked away. She did feel pretty. She never usually let herself feel pretty, she always had to be tough and she was never taught that those two things could exist at the same time. 

"I don't like how I look without my hat," she patted the top of her head and meddled around with the shorter curls at the front of her face that somehow looked out of place without the hat on her head. "I feel a complete loss of my power. Of myself."

"Your power has nothing to do with that hat, it's who you are on the inside. We never followed you because you had a hat on your head, we followed you because of who you are and what you have done for us."

Kathryn nodded, "I know, it's just... We've lost so much. I've had that hat forever, my father gave it to me when he gave me Verena's Vengeance. Wearing that hat was a way for me to forever have the ship with me."

"Once we have finished out duties here, we will go home. You can have the ship forever with you, then," Kathryn nodded to him, her hand falling onto the hilt of her rapier at her side. She found that her fingers absentmindedly ran over the shells and the waves on the handle. "Are you ready to join the festivities. I cannot remember the last time we had a celebration like this."

"It was barely seven months ago when Lawrence received news of the birth of his child," her hand gripped the door handle, ready to enter the deck of the Dawn Treader, "Of course you don't remember it. You barely made it five ales deep before falling over board."

Carver's lips tightened as he remembered what had happened. He had tried to impress the mermaids that followed the ship, only he leaned too much on the rotting ship's foundation before he joined them in the ocean. They had held him above the surface until the crew had stopped laughing and rescued him.

The music filled their ears as soon as they opened the door. The sun had begun setting across. the horizon, a few lonely birds remained to soar the sunrise. She found Mo the Mute stringing a banjo to her right, a few other sailors all bundled around with various instruments; one with two spoons that he banged on his knee, another with a flute between his lips and another who used crates and barrels as drums. They all looked content as they played, finding each other's harmony.

To her left, she found Reepicheep and Queen Lucy deep in conversation as they watched the ocean's waves. Behind them, Caspian and Edmund were caught in a duel. Each of them slashing with their swords and trying to best the other. Edmund was indeed a little rusty, but that was expected. With each strike he grew more confident. Caspian, on the other hand, was as skilled as could be. His moves always calculated. But his moves were very Narnian, more flare than fright.