When Time Stands Still

Flashback- Caspian X

Through a haze of unidentifiable feelings, he sat up, coughing in the cold.

Was he home at the castle? Wait, hadn't he run away from here? From his uncle?

A sudden dread sank into him almost as quickly as the cold air invaded the blanket.

Jadis.

The White Witch.

His breath almost stopped in a frozen gasp. The Ice Queen. The evil queen.

His queen.

Quietly, Caspian stepped to the icy floor, creeping to the door.

Much as he wanted to keep away the remembrance of all that had transpired, he had to acknowledge the truth.

He was married to her, and they (well, maybe just she) ruled Narnia. He hadn't saved anything, merely doomed them all to this fate.

What had become of the Narnians? The Pevensies? His uncle?

He didn't know.

Caspian had to find her. Jadis would have the answers. Whatever this was, it was her doing.

Right as he stepped to leave this room, he took pause and darted back to a chest below a tiny window.

He opened it, the hinges squealing in the frigid air, caked in icy frost. There.

Susan's horn, wrapped carefully underneath folded fabric items. That was what had sparked his remembrance. He was sure of it. This was his savior- and perhaps now his doom.

Before he didn't know his prison, now he saw the endless walls surrounding him. Picking up the horn, he stared at it in a floating state of horror.

How could he mess up everything this badly? One stupid move from one stupid person- and everyone paid.

In the motion of a single dainty snowflake, a paper fluttered to the floor from inside the horn. Caspian cocked his head, watching it land.

A harsh echo sent shivers through him (although he had been shivering already as the temperature inside the castle was truly fit for no man), and he stuffed the paper shred into the horn once more, cramming it all into the chest.

The Queen was coming.

And the King was finished with silence.