soldier, poet, king || e. pevensie | slow updates

the poet • 31

there will come a poet, whose weapon is his word. he will slay you with his tongue, oh lei-oh lai-oh lord.

earlier

Dantus followed Coralia up the steep stairs to the servant's quarters in the attic.

"No barracks?" He questioned. She turned to look at him, shaking her head. They reached her room, and she knocked before entering. Dantus watched as her gentle hand pushed open the door and stepped in after her.

Coralia turned, seeming surprised that he hadn't waited in the hall. Surprised, but not offended or uncomfortable. She reached into her wardrobe and revealed his old manuscript. He hadn't seen it in a year, at least. She approached, handing it to him. He ran his fingers over the messily tied-together papers, made even looser from wear. It warmed his heart to know that she really had read it.

"I did enjoy it, Dantus. You're a talented writer. I'm proud."

"I missed you," Was all he could say. She was always beautiful, but she had grown even more breathtaking since he had seen her. How he'd let her slip through his fingers before, he had no idea. He wouldn't let it happen again.

She smiled. "As did I, Dantus." And it was true, she'd missed him greatly. She missed home.

One second she was looking at her oldest friend's face, the next she was up against her bedroom wall with his lips on hers. He kissed her roughly, her back digging into the hard wall. Once she realized what was happening, she gave in. She gripped his short hair as he kissed down her neck, his hand hooked underneath and lifting one of her legs.

Coralia opened an eye and caught the time on her clock. Twenty minutes to training with knights.

"Dantus," She managed, pausing to breath. He only smiled, trying to steal another kiss. "I have to be at King Edmund's quarters in five minutes."

"Don't say another man's name while my lips are on yours."

"I'm serious."

"That's five minutes that I'm yours. Let me kiss you again."

She feared for any of the knights still in their rooms. They were the nosiest beings she'd ever met, and she knew that if one of them heard anything, she'd open the door to every single one with their ears against the wall trying to figure out what was going on.

Did she know them that well, or did her magic allow her foresight?

Peodum crashed into her room without knocking. That was a tendency of his. "Cor, we have trai— OH, COR, WHAT IS HAPPENING?" He clapped a hand over his face, running back out the door. "ZAVIER! AXON! YOU'LL NEVER GUESS!"

Coralia let her forehead fall against Dantus'. "That's my cue to leave, then. Duty calls." She dropped from his arms and began putting on her armor, fixing her hair as she did so.

Just as she was about to open the door to leave, Dantus grabbed her arm and spun her back to him, pulling her into a last passionate kiss. She melted into his touch, before breaking the kiss and lightly pushing him back.

"Come home with me." Dantus blurted. He wasn't expecting himself to say it, and Coralia clearly wasn't expecting him to say it.

"Dantus." She couldn't find the words to explain. "I can't leave. We need to talk about it."

Dantus sat on Coralia's bed. He dropped his head into his hands. What was he thinking? He had Pyxia and his career back home, Coralia had her life here. She had her duty to the king. His entire mood was ruined at the thought of the king. Trying to make moves on Coralia. If Dantus' reunion with her wasn't enough to prove that the king had no chance, then Dantus didn't know what was.

He grabbed the manuscript, sliding it carefully into his bag. He made sure everything was packed up, and headed down to the front gates of Cair Paravel. He would just wait for dark before returning and begging Coralia to come home with him.

So there he sat for hours, on a rock. His eyes kept fluttering shut, the gentle waves of the Great Eastern Ocean lulling him to sleep. Finally, the faraway sound of swords hitting each other stopped, indicating the end of training.

He headed back into the city and up to the palace, where he caught Coralia. Her eyes widened as he grabbed her shoulder. Her hand lifted, nearly flying towards his face before she realized who had grabbed her shoulder.

"Come home with me," He repeated his last words to her.

"Dantus..." She started, looking deep into his eyes. "I've built a life here. I'm doing something with my life, I'm important."

His eyes filled with regret and embarrassment for even asking the question. "You're important to me. I'm leaving tomorrow morning, meet me if you're coming."

She opened her mouth to argue.

"We can have that conversation in the morning."

And she left him in the night to spend the next hours wondering.

•

me every time i remember dantus is a faun and has goat legs 🧍‍♀️

no one hates love triangles more than me

no one loves cliches more than me

do you see my dilemma