Fire and Ice(Narnia Book 3)

Chapter 3 Never Truly Left

(Edmunds POV)

Before I could even blink the boat was docked and we were standing in front of a crowd of narnians and ex Telemarines. "Everyone!" Caspian exclaimed with a large smile, sweeping his arms in front of him as he spoke. "Give a warm 'welcome back' to Edmund, The Just, and Lucy, The Valiant, high king and high queen of Narnia."

The crowd erupted into cries of joy, so much so that Emmy laughed and leaned her head on me as she covered her ears. I saw Caspian motion for us to follow him as the crowd split apart, still cheering and clapping all the while, leaving a space big enough for us to safely walk through. Half of Caspians crew walked in front of us and the rest walked behind us, just for safety. 

To my right Lucy grinned and tried to speak to absolutely everyone, reaching for hands to shake. To my left though, Emmy looked so incredibly nervous, despite the fact that she was smiling. I reached over carefully and gently brushed my fingers against hers. I watched as she glanced down at our hands and slowly wrapped a finger around mine before eventually interlocking all our fingers together, leaning her shoulder against mine. 

I'd been so focused on holding her hand that I hadn't even realized there was no longer cheering and that we were now standing in the middle of a large foyer leading into an extremely long hallway, with a marble staircase matching the floor and walls on the right, and another identical one on the left. I looked to my right and broke out into a grin. 

"Hello Reep! You must excuse my absence in the conversation on the ship, I was a bit distracted."

"My Liege!" Reepeecheep bowed low as I approached. " Please, do not apologize. We are absolutely thrilled to have you back!"

At this point Lucy and Emmy had joined me and were smiling at the little rat, that was now not so little. "Will we be meeting Aslans guests now?" Lucy asked hopefully, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. 

"Im afraid not, your Highness." Reep smiled lightly at her pout. "But, you will tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Caspian asked, drawing our attention to him. "I was under the impression the sooner the better."

"As was I." Reep replied. "Unfortunately there has been a situation with one of our guests and they all need a bit of time to get things straight. Aslan has requested that I inform you of this and have dinner brought up to you. Your friend-"

I cut him off quickly. "Emmy."

"Right, yes, Emmy." He turned to her with a toothy grin, bowing low once more before continuing. "You will be staying with Queen Lucy if that is alright with her majesty?"

"Of course!" Lucy nodded rapidly. 

"I trust you all remember right where your rooms are?" We all nodded. "Alright then, off you go. Dinner will be brought up shortly and Aslan wishes to speak with you all at first light tomorrow morning."

We all thanked him and made our way to the staircases. I glanced back, noticing that everyone else had made their way out of the foyer, leaving the three of us and Caspian in silence. I tapped my hand on the railing of the staircase on the right and watched as Lucy broke the silence by dragging Emmy up the stairs on the left, tossing us a quick 'goodnight'.

"Shall we?" Caspian smirked, nudging me roughly in the shoulder as I stared after the girls. I cleared my throat before shoving him back lightly and making my way up to my room. 

We walked at a normal pace down the seemingly endless hallways, talking little. "So, this friend of yours." Caspian started after a while.

"What about her?" I snapped, rolling my eyes at the amused stare I was receiving. 

"You like her quite a bit, dont you?"

I shrugged and cast my eyes down to my feet. "Shes my best friend." 

"Oh, and here I thought Maggie was your best friend. Go through those quite a bit do we?"

"No." I replied, running my fingers across the frame of a large painting of Aslan as we walked past it. "Maggie was a good friend, but she was always closer to Peter."

"And how, if you dont mind the intrusion of privacy, did you meet Emmy?" 

"Well, she's Maggies cousin, and we met Maggie when I was seven. One Christmas when I was twelve I met Emmy at a party our parents were throwing and she was the only one there my age so naturally we began talking, but she lives in Cambridge near my aunt and uncle and we live in Finchley so seeing each other again never happened. Luckily, she sent me a letter a few weeks later and we wrote back and forth until a few months ago when we were sent to live with our aunt and uncle. I guess you could say we've grown a lot closer since then."

"Does she know?" Caspian asked after a moment, bringing me out of my memories. 

I glanced up to meet his eyes before noticing we were standing outside of my room. "Does she know what? How we met? Well Caspian, seeing as she was there I would assume so, yes."

Caspian rolled his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest. "Not that. Does she know how you feel about her? I could hear it in your voice when you spoke about her just now as well as see it in your eyes. I have to be honest, I dont think i've ever seen you with this look before."

"Well, to be honest, you havent exactly known me for that long." Before he could reply I called a quick goodnight over my shoulder and hurried into my room, shutting the door behind me. 

The room was filled with candles of all different kinds, illuminating the room so much that despite the setting sun it appeared to be morning. Everything was exactly as it was before I left. Same ole bed, same ole black and red sheets, same ole wooden desk cluttered with battle plans and other pieces of paper, but the thing that caught my eye was the gas lamp on the desk. It was still lit and was pointing down, shining directly on the feather pen and ink vile I had been using the night before we left Narnia. I smiled lightly, thinking how everything seemed as though we had never truly left, and while I knew we had physically, I realized then mentally and emotionally we never had.