Becoming a Lioness (Book 2)

Chapter 37 Cry

"Susan!" Lucy called to her big sister as the older girl dashed across the deck of the Dawn Treader to reach us.

"How is he?" She asked, immediately squeezing Lucy and I in a tight hug and feeling her brothers forehead.

"Alright, but won't be for long. We need to get him back and settled to start the treatment." Caspian replied, turning to Trumpkin who had approached us.

"We've got a room all ready." He motioned Caspian and Edmund below deck, nodding to Lucy and I before turning and following them.

"I think we could all benefit from cleaning up and a fresh pair of clothes." Susan suggested, placing her hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Sound good?"

"Sounds great." I smiled, walking  down the few steps that led below deck and turned left down the little hallway. I glanced over my shoulder, noticing the sisters enter a room near the stairs, and continued to my own room.

I shoved the door opened and hastily made my way over to the small bag of clothes Caspian had brought for each us girls, slipping on a tunic and some trousers in what seemed like a daze. I scurried over to my hammock that looked way to perfect once I was done. It rocked a bit as I plopped down, but I hardly noticed. My eyes closed before I even had the chance to think about anything and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

***
The sound of the floor creaking nearby caused me stir. I sat up abruptly, sighing in relief as Susan smiled. "Hi."

"Hi." I breathed in return. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes." She nodded, raising a small bowl of water and a rag in the air. "You were asleep for about two hours."

I nodded an okay for her to sit with me and willingly allowed her to rinse off my hands. She dipped the cloth in the Luke warm water a few times before rubbing it up and down my arms a few times, moving to my face once she was done.

"Peters awake." She explained once she was finished, drying her hands on her skirt. "I wanted to thank you for looking after him so well. I can't imagine how difficult it was to-"

"It was my pleasure." I cut her off. "I wouldn't let anything happen to him. Can I see him?"

"Of course." She waved her hand at me, sending me out of the room and down the hall in two seconds flat.

The closer I got to his room the more butterflies gathered in my stomach. I couldn't believe i was nervous, but I didn't know how I would react to seeing him now, clean and dirt free with the wounds showing clearly.

I knocked on the door lightly, feeling the urge to cry as his scratchy voice called back, "come in." I pushed the door open slowly and stepped in lightly, having yet to turn around.

I took a deep breath, spinning around ever so slowly and freezing in place. He sat on the cot, his back rested against the wooden headboard. The setting sun cast an orange glow through the small port hole in the wall, sliding across his frame.

His hair was damp, but this time from clean water, and the gash on his cheek had been cleaned. A nasty purple bruise had formed below his left eye, and yet he had never looked so beautiful. I couldn't hold back the tears that began to flow as he smiled that beautiful smile at me, making my knees weak, his eyes crinkling a bit at the corners as he did so.

I ran to the cot, throwing myself into his oh so familiar arms, and felt his chest rumble as he chuckled, causing more tears of happiness and relief to fall from my eyes. He rocked me like a child for a while just holding me to him  and whispering words of thanks and sweet nothings into my ear.

For the first time in my life, wrapped in my true loves arms, I cried. I cried for Peter being hurt, I cried for Susan, Edmund, and Lucy's pain while searching for their brother, I cried in the relief we all felt when we saw Peter alive, I cried in the joy that was brought about when Aslan arrived, and last but not least, I cried for me and happy ending.