𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃 | ❝Hope is good, Hope will never disgrace, but make no mistake, Hope will hit you in the face!❞
In which the Just King becomes betrothed to a princess from a neighboring kingdom, only to fall in love with the prin...
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WITH THE PLETHORA OF wars over at long last — with the Telmarines, the fairies, the Giants, and even the imaginary pirates — peace peppered the resilient kingdom of Narnia.
The Narnians should have been wearier. Perhaps they were. But with each battle and glorious victory under their valiant rulers' crowns, the kingdom was reborn stronger and stronger. It could not have been done without Hope's wit, Caspian's vigor, or Odette's razor sharp resolve.
Where did the time go? The months flew with the wind, brisk and fleeting. Every time Hope thought she'd finally found her footing, something else tilted the ground she ruled upon. Something was always on the rise, someone was always in need of aid. But a funny (and maybe even masochistic) part of her reveled in all of that chaos that ruling ensued.
There were always summons to answer, letters to write, battles to conquer. She liked feeling useful. She liked the fast pace of it all. In a strange way, it was almost as demanding as her handmaid days.
Perhaps this was what Aslan meant when she had much to learn from Narnia. Finally, she was allowing herself to believe that this was where she was meant to be. All the wars and treason and threats of beheading were worth every minute because they brought her here, to Narnia. Home. She would greedily accept every adventure and sunrise Narnia gave her if she could manage to carry them in her simple human hands.
This was where seh was meant to be all along, whether in a castle or quaint village or in a burrow with rabbits for neighbors. Not Wysteria. Not London. Narnia.
And that was what she told Caspian whenever he begged her to accompany him on his many voyages over sea.
Some of his trips lasted weeks, others a month — never long enough for the seasons to pass in its entirety. Once the Narnians conquered the Northern Giants in their rebellion against the new crowns, Caspian didn't let himself rest for more than a day before returning to his ships (which were steadily growing larger and larger). The tides called to the seafarer more than anything he'd ever known. If living on land in Narnia was where Hope was meant to be, then Caspian belonged to the kingdom of salt and water.
That left Odette somewhere in the middle.
Between the three of them, Odette struggled the most in deciding where she truly belonged. Her regrets were anchored to Wysteria, her crown tied her to Narnia, but her heart was beginning to crave adventure. All those years she spent holed up behind castle walls were escaping her. Traveling on behalf of Narnia to redeem their relationships with the neighboring kingdoms was what made her realize this. Very little seemed to satiate that itch — nothing except for traveling alongside Caspian across the sea.
